Life Marauders Style
by Harrypotter213
Summary: 'Nope I shall not give up until she says yes. I swear to you I will marry that girl one day she will be the future Mrs Potter'. 'You bet' Peter laughed. 'I DEFININITLY bet' 'How much' Sirius' eyes glinted with that look that meant trouble. Follow the lives of our favourite trouble makers as they journey through Hogwarts flirting, laughing and pranking..often.
1. The Jily Pact

~~~ The Jily Pact ~~~

James looked at his watch.

'Damn' he looked at Sirius then looked back at his watch.

It was five minutes to eleven and James and Sirius were standing outside Kings Cross Station with James' parents, with panicked looks on their faces. The pair were at the station which would take them to Hogwarts Express which was hidden not on platform nine or platform ten but somewhere in-between the two.

The young boys broke into a sprint tailed by Mr and Mrs Potter through Kings Cross, through the barriers and through the wall in-between platforms nine and ten. They were met with the familiar sight of the royal red steam train four minutes later.

'One minute to go' Sirius yelled, whilst jumping in the air 'that must be a record'. Sirius was about average height for his age but had broad shoulders. His jet black hair hung in waves, messily down to his shoulders. He prefered it that way. His hair was supposedly what made him most attractive, at least that's what he thought. He stood on the platform next to James, his best friend at Hogwarts. James was a little taller than Sirius and his hair was shorter and even messier. He constanly ran his hands through the black-brown hair whenever he was nervous, a habbit his friends had noticed and teased him about, as he often did it around a certain red-head. As per usual his glasses rested crookedly on his nose.

'Yeah, you boys can celebrate that you didn't miss the train, once you are seated on it' Mrs Potter said slightly flustered. She was a kind faced elderly woman who you can tell, from a quick glance, idolises her family. Her red handbag hung on her arm as she pulled both boys close to her in a motherly hug, whilst Mr Potter patted them both on the back. James looked

'Bye mum, dad' James called as he jumped on the red steam train just as the whistle blew to signal its departure. Sirius quickly followed and waved goodbye 'bye Mrs Potter, Mr Potter thanks for the food' he said with a grin.

'How many times call us by our names Sirius' she sobbed. She always acted like she would never see her boys again when she waved them off.

'Okay bye Charlie, bye Kathy' his smile widened.

Sirius was a Black, practically disowned by his parents when two yeas ago he sat on that crooked wooden stool and that old hat yelled 'GRYFFINDOR' to the whole schools amazement. Mr and Mrs Black had walked straight passed Sirius at the stations entrance, and proceeded to platform 9 ¾ with his younger brother, Regulus, who was about to start his first year at Hogwarts. Sirius was never truly accepted by his parents as he never acted how a 'pure blood' should or how they thought a pure blood should act. James' family too was a pure blood but that was the only similarity you would find between the two families. Sirius often came back to school each September black and blue from where he 'tripped' down the stairs, 'fell' into walls or 'accidentally' got in the way of a curse his mother was aiming at him. But Sirius didn't mind because he knew that it was only for a couple of weeks as he spent Christmas and the other holidays at the Potters house his 'addoptive' family.

The boys were about to start their third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and couldn't wait to prank their way through the next 10 months with their best friends.

James and Sirius dragged their trunks down the corridor of the carriage in search of their friends. After looking in a couple of compartment they opened the door and threw their trunks onto the luggage racks.

'REMUS!' both boys screamed as they tackled their mate to the floor.

'Nice to see you two too' Remus said stiffly. Remus was a quiet boy, well quiet compared to Sirius and James. He prefered to read than chase after the female population as the other two did. He was the same height as James but had light brown hair that seemed to fall flat, something James' never did. Remus was just as good looking as his two friends but due to his _condition_ - that his friends knew nothing of - he often had a tired expression on his face which tended to age him.

'Wassup my friend you look awful' James exclaimed getting up.

'Always so sensitive James, I just tripped whilst hiking last week, still a little sore' Remus lied smoothly what his friends didn't know was that he did not go hiking but his state was the aftermath of the last full moon only days ago.

'Ah what happened to Pete? Where is he?' Sirius said ignoring his friends.

As if on cue the fourth Marauder slide the door open and tripped through the door knocking the trio back to the floor. Peter was the smallest of the group, with dirty blonde-brown hair and mouse like features.

'Argh' 'Hey' 'What the?' the three all said at the same time.

'Err. Sorry guys' Peter said awkwardly.

'Come here you!' Sirius said as he pulled Peter into a headlock and messed his hair up.

'Gerroff Siri'.

The others laughed.

'Right you lot listen up!' Sirius said whilst the others found their seats. 'We are third years now we need to step up our game, whilst on this train we can do little more than last year but as soon as we are on the stone steps of the castle its game on! Marauders need to show these first years who are the leaders of this school'

'Hardly leaders, we are only third years' Remus stated.

'Ye of little faith Remmy and don't interrupt' Sirius replied with a smirk. 'We must go where no prankster has gone before, beyond that of past third years. We must discover Hogwarts secrets and use them to our pranking advantage. So who's with me?'

'Yes sir' James soluted his brother as Remus said 'If I must' and Peter just mumbled an agreement under his breathe and nodded.

'Brothers united once again'

But James wasn't listening. A petite red headed girl had just walked passed the door of the cabin.

'Here we go again' Remus muttered.

James ran out to the corridor and stared after the girl, running his hand through his hair. 'Hey Lils, have a good summer?'

'Get lost, Potter' was his reply.

'I'm only being polite love'

'No your not your just talking crap before you ask me out again. LEAVE ME ALONE AND STOP ASKING ME OUT' she screamed 'and don't call me love'. She stormed up to the furthest most compartment of the carriage and went inside slamming the door behind her.

James heard a low whistle from behind him, he turned to find Sirius doubled over with laughter. 'Give it up mate she obviously isn't interested James'.

'Nope I shall not give up until she says yes. I swear to you I will marry that girl one day she will be the future Mrs Potter'.

'You bet?' Peter laughed.

'I DEFININITLY bet'

'How much?' Sirius' eyes glinted with that look that meant trouble.

'100 galleons that I marry that red headed beauty by the time I'm twenty five'

'Deal' he grinned 'whos with me?

'Im in' Peter called.

'I suppose' Remus agreed

'And the losing team has to do a forfeit' James added raising the stakes.

'Don't make me regret this' Remus moaned the same time Sirius said 'Deal, we need this in writing' He rummaged around in his trunk until he found a spare piece of parchment. 'Right for this to be proper we need blood'

The three boys glared at Sirius dumbstruck, but James quickly shrugged, pulled out his wand and drew a tiny cut on his pinky finger and let the blood drop onto the parchment. He turned to the others who too pulled out their wands and repeated his lead.

Sirius touched his wand to the parchment 'The Jily Pact'

'I James Potter herby declare that I shall marry Lily Evans by the time I am 25. If I shall fail I shall give 100 galleons to my opposing team of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Petigrew and complete a forfeit of their choice. Shall I succeed the opposing team shall give me 100 galleons and will complete a forfeit of my choice' James grinned 'Signed in blood by Messrs Remus, Peter, Sirius and James'

And before their eyes the four drops of blood gently moved around the parchment leaving the print of James' words.

The Pact was complete.

**OK so that was the first chapter of my first ever fanfic hope you liked it :):):):):)**

**R&R please**

**phoebe**

**xxxxxxxxx**


	2. The Strange Announcement

~~~ The Strange Announcement ~~~

'Argh can you believe that he is still going on? Will he ever stop?' Lily ranted as she entered her compartment and sat down beside her best friend, Alice.

'Who won't stop what?' Nevaeh muttered looking up from her magazine. Nevaeh Lawson was a pretty girl with black hair that was dead straight and hung to the middle of her back. Her chocolate brown eyes often sparkled, causing her to be the attention of quite a few boys in their year.

'James Potter! Who else would she be talking about' Alice giggled but soon stopped after a glare Lily sent her way. Alice Redwood had green eyes like Lily's and brown hair in a short pixie cut that suited her well.

'Oh I thought maybe you had something new to moan about, but no its Potter as usual' Nevaeh smirked laughing at Lily's reaction to Alice's comment. 'So what did he do this time?'

'Oh the usual 'will you go out with me' like it's the first time he has said it' Lily said imitating James voice badly due to her irritation.

'Why don't you just say yes for once and see what happens?'

'No way am I EVER saying YES to that arrogant bigheaded pig'

'I heard your conversation, if you can call it that, he was only being polite, and he didn't actually ask you out this time, not that you gave him a chance to' Alice said looking out the window watching the British countryside rush past blurring into a green-yellow colour.

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Look Lily all I'm saying is, and don't take this the wrong way because I'm your best mate and I love you but, stop yelling at the guy who is head over heels for you, I know you don't like him' she added quickly 'but seriously the way you moan about him it's like the pair of you are an old married couple. Alice laughed and was joined by Nevaeh whilst Lily just sat quietly sulking.

'Seriously where is Evanna? We've been on this train at least half an hour she should have found us by now' Nevaeh wondered aloud.

'She's probably of stalking some boys in the year above, you know what she's like' Lily giggled, over her sulking session. The three girls started talking about what they had missed in each others lives over the summer, how Alice was annoyed at the fact three weeks in Spain had made absolutely no difference to the tone of her skin whilst Lily had gone bronze just from sitting in her back garden. After an hour and a half on the train their compartment door slid open.

'…he was so tall and had blondish brown hair'

'Nevaeh what are you talking about?' Evanna laughed as she stepped inside the compartment looking a little flustered. Evanna Robins had bright blue eyes, and long blonde curls that hung to her waist.

'Finally decided to show up did we? Who was it this time?' Alice asked.

'Actually I was talking about this guy I met over the summer who lives two streets over from me, he was so hot shame he wasn't a wizard though' Nevaeh interrupted, answering Evanna's question, but finished with a frown.

'Nice one Neev' Evanna replied smirking 'and to answer your question' she looked at Alice 'I was catching up with a friend'.

'Yeah right if _catching up_ means snogging. Go on tell us, who is he? Oh don't deny it' Lily said just as Evanna opened her mouth about to deny it 'your lips all swollen! Is he in our year? Is he a Gryffindor? Is he hot? Are you going out?'

'Stop with all the questions. I'm not answering them. Just that, no, we are not officially going out'

The girls huffed, the look on Evanna's face clearly said that the conversation was over. They started talking again of their summer. Five minutes later a very red-faced Remus walked past their compartment. Lily quickly got up and called out the door after Remus.

'Hey Remus, how was your summer?' Lily smiled. Despite not liking any of his friends, Lily was really close with Remus, the pair having a lot in common, and him not asking her out constantly like James.

'Er Hello Lily, I er didn't see you there. My summer, my summer was good thanks and you?' he stammered clearly embarrassed about something.

'Great thanks, is everything ok, you look a little…'

'Yeah I'm fine, just feel a little' he shrugged 'well I better get going I'll see you at the feast, bye' He waved and rushed back to his compartment.

_That was weird _Lily thought but she shrugged and went back to talking about summer with her friends and what third year might hold for them. All four were starting new subjects and were excited at the idea of going to Hogsmead, finally being allowed to leave the castle.

The train sped on and the light started to fade as night fell. Sooner or later the train started to slow and pull into Hogsmead station. The four girls stood up collected their things and joined the buzz of students on the platform. They heard the call of Hagrid, the groundskeeper, to the first years to lead them down to the boats.

The feast was excellent, everyone was sure it was much better than last year. Everyone hungrily tucked in after the sorting ceremony, and listened to Dumbledore's normal speech of welcomes, but something new caught the attention of the whole school.

'Now our last notice is, to those of you who are in years six or seven you are to report to this room, the Great Hall, Thursday evening at seven o clock sharp, and to those in year five and below I wish for you not to come near the hall at that time or to ask any student who attends as to what the meeting will be about. If anyone is heard discussing the meetings details you will soon wish you had kept your mouth shut' Dumbledore stated mater of factly while the whole school stared at him wondering what could be so important that it was a banned topic of conversation 'Well off to bed now' he concluded cheerfully, clapping his hands twice.

**There we go chapter two done :)**

**I know it's shorter than the last one but I didn't really know how to extend it but oh well I think it wasn't too bad**

**This is sort of an in-between chapter (well that's what I call it) I just needed to get a point out which is important for later in the story, promise the next one will be better :)**

**Please review would mean a lot to me**

**The chapters will start getting longer I promise**

**Phoebe xxxx**


	3. Confrontation in the Hallway

**Enjoy :)**

~~~ Confrontation in the Hallway ~~~

That night in the Gryffindor common room there was only one topic of conversation – the coming Thursday night. The sixth and seventh years were excited, literally buzzing around the common room. All had the impression that whatever it was it was important but also held the presence of danger. Many stories and speculations were running around each of the four common rooms as to what could possibly be so dangerous for the lower years to not be allowed in on the secret.

'I wonder if its illegal'

'No of course it's not illegal'

'But not talking about it means not telling the ministry'

'Maybe that's what Dumbledore wanted'

'But why?'

'Maybe its to do with the war'

'Maybe we are helping Dumbledore overthrow the Ministry'

'Why is it only sixth and seventh years?'

'They will be of age'

'I want to know what's going on'

'So does everyone, but no one will talk about what goes on that night'

'Dumbledore forbid it'

'This is Hogwarts, someone will tell'

Many people had their own theories of what was going on and were talking about it most of the night. People eventually started to drift off to their dorms in twos or threes. Next morning at the breakfast table was a quiet scene, many were tired from being up all night or wanted to talk about 'the night' as it became known as but couldn't due to the presence of teachers walking up and down the rows.

'I don't know why everyone is fussing over 'the night' everyone will know exactly what it's about by breakfast Friday morning' Sirius said aloud not caring if anyone heard.

'Shh' Remus said 'Keep your voice down'

'I will if you tell me what you were up to on the train yesterday we were barely in the carriage for an hour when you disappeared, why were you gone so long?'

Remus blushed _why did Sirius keep bringing this up?_ 'I told you, I ate something dodgy on Saturday, I just felt sick needed some air, that dungbomb that exploded in your case wasn't helping' He repeated the story the had told his fellow Marauders when he returned to their compartment, after the lunch trolley left, when they sat down for the feast, when they got back into their dorm and when he had woken up. But still Sirius refused to accept his excuse.

'Nor is it making the dorm smell very nice' James laughed 'Sirius-ly mate you've got to sort that out, it's nasty'

'Haha very funny haven't heard that one before and yeah, yeah I'll stop by the kitchens and get an elf to do it one the way too…' he looked around 'what do we have first'

'You have had your timetable for two minutes and you've already lost it' Remus said in disbelief, Peter snickered.

'I've got it here somewhere' James lifted up Sirius' plate.

'This what you're looking for' James pointed to the place where the plate had been.

'Aha told you I had it' James rolled his eyes. 'So its' transfiguration first with the ergh Slytherins' he finished in a disgusted voice.

'Well we can't ditch our first lesson, Minnie will have a fit' James sighed. The four boys had nicknames for all their favourite teachers (by favourite they mean the ones who like to give them the most detentions – McGonagall was top of their list).

The boys made their way to transfiguration chatting loudly as per usual and turned to enter the classroom.

'Well look what the house elf dragged in!' shrieked a voice from behind them. The four boys turned around to see a Slytherin girl from the year above glaring at them.

'Why hello dear cousin, what happened to your hair? Only it looks like something your sister's cat sicked up' Sirius smirked.

'Quite the comedian, aren't you?'

'Well I'd like to think so' he gleamed flicking his hair over his shoulder.

'That stupid mop you call hair is really starting to get on my nerves, well I think its time for a hair cut, don't you Severus?' Bellatrix turned to Snape who was standing a foot or so behind her, eyes glowing with excitement.

And with a flick of her wand Sirius' almost shoulder length hair was cut just below the ear on one side. Sirius who treasured his hair stood in shock as the locks fell to the floor.

'You…you BITCH' with in seconds Sirius, James, Remus, Snape and Bellatrix had their wands out pointing at each other. Bellatrix shrieked with laughter amused by the look on her cousin's face.

'Sev, what's going on?' said a soft voice from behind them.

'Lily stay back' James called immediately.

'Don't tell me what to do, and I wasn't talking to you.' She said annoyed and turned 'Sev?'

'Go Away Lily!'

'But Sev?' she sounded hurt now.

'Don't talk to me you filthy mudblood' Snape sounded unintentionally disgusted. It was clear by the look on his face that he hated talking to and hurting her like that, which is why James hated him so much. If he could have the friendship with Lily the way Snape had had, to talk to her without being slapped or screamed at. He would never, ever do anything to jeopardise that and here was Snivellus doing exactly that.

Lily looked into Snape's eyes feeling more and more hurt the longer he stared back until he broke off. Lily turned and ran into the classroom, tears streaming down her face. Snape looked up to see James looking at him in disgust.

James pointed his wand away from Bellatrix and towards Snape.

'There was no need to talk to her like that, what has she ever done to you?'

Snape just looked down and said nothing.

'Hey Snivellus, have you not cleaned your ears lately, I asked you a question'

'Aww little Potty has gone all protective over the dirty filthy little MUDBLOOD' she taunted. James wand pointed back to Bellatrix.

'Don't you dare call her that in front of me or anyone if you want to stay conscious '

Meanwhile the whole time – from Bellatrix's first comment, to their wands being pulled out, to Lily running off crying – Peter stood there in the corner not saying a thing, not drawing his wand to stand by his friends just stood there, watching.

In the next moment the corridor was filled with the sound of McGonagall's voice.

'What on earth do you six think you are doing out here? Its one thing to be late to class but duelling in the corridor. I do not care if no spells were cast' she added to silence Sirius's protest 'the intention was there so I will be seeing all six of you in my office at seven o'clock this evening'

'Six? Peter didn't do anything' Sirius stated.

'Yeah he did nothing, just stood there' James and Sirius glared at Peter not being able to think of any reason why their friend did not have their backs.

'Absolutely nothing' Remus finished pulling James and Sirius into the transfiguration classroom. Peter just stood there a second longer before skulking into the classroom followed by a torn Snape.

'Miss Black, please continue onto your lesson' McGonnagall said before entering her classroom and closing the door.

Laughing the whole way their, Bellatrix headed towards the dungeons for Potions.

Their first week continued and quickly merged into their second then third. Everyone adjusted to lives back at Hogwarts and James and Sirius only landed a light sentence of five detentions on top of McGonagalls which even Remus admitted was fairly good. The first Thursday of term came and went, with the following couple of days being the centre of conversation, but only as speculation. As Dumbledore had said, the contents of the meeting was to remain unknown to all who did not attend – so everyone was left guessing secretly under the eyes of the teacher. The only information that had spread around the school was that the Slytherins (or the majority of them) were no longer invited. This had the whole school guessing why the darkest house was being rejected by Dumbledore and the rest of the staff. But it became apparent that they were told to leave the hall minutes after it started so knew nothing of its activities.

September turned into October which was slowly turning into November but not first without the arrival of Halloween….

**Ahhh chapter three :):):):)**

**I'm going to try to post every weekend because I just started my a-levels which are tough so don't get much time to write. **

**Next chapter is Halloween the perfect opportunity to prank**

**(Don't worry the Thursday secret meetings will be continued in later chapters I can't really explain it just yet so don't think I couldn't be bothered to finish it or that I closed the storyline abruptly)**

**Please please please review would mean so much and might influence future chapters**

**Love Phoebe :) **

**xxxxxxxxx**


	4. Halloween

**A/N : I changed chapter one only slightly I realised the marauders couldn't have got their nick names with out having become the animagus so I just c hanged their nicknames to their actual names.**

** : really excited about the next chapter :) hope your going to love it**

~~~ Halloween is coming~~~

October was drawing to a close and the students of Hogwarts were literally buzzing with excitement of Halloween. It was tradition at Hogwarts for the all students to attend the Halloween Feast in the Great Hall, but this year a couple of seventh year boys by the name of Prewitt were throwing a Halloween fancy dress party, in their common room, after the feast. All of Gryffindor house spent weeks talking about what costumes they were planning on wearing so not to double up with someone else and they were especially careful talking about the party in the presence of teachers as nobody wanted to be the reason the party would be cancelled. Hogwarts was decorated even more than usual for the occasion. Many guessed it was a distraction from the war going on outside the castle walls. The walls were covered in cobwebs, more than usual. The suits of armour were scaring the younger students who were not used to Halloween at Hogwarts. Peeves was pranking and scaring as many students as he could. Lit candles and pumpkins were floating above peoples heads occasionally dripping wax or pumpkin juice all over them. James and Sirius were so busy planning their Halloween prank they didn't notice Remus' change in behaviour. The dark circles under his eyes, the shivers that kept engulfing him and the general tired look about him. The truth was the full moon was drawing ever closer. The full moon would be on the night of Halloween and Remus was feeling the usual pre-transformation jitters the day before.

'Will you two give it a rest' Remus sighed. James and Sirius were arguing about their prank the nest day.

'What's wrong with you all of a sudden?' Sirius asked 'Anyway what is everyone wearing tomorrow?'

'I have _the _best costume' James grinned.

'Okay Jane are you co-ordinating with your gal-pals?' Sirius smirked.

'As a matter of fact I...' he started 'Well you'll just have to see tomorrow, what about you Remmy?'

'Err I'm not sure if im going, its not really my idea of fun, I'll probably just turn in early'

'WHAT!' James and Sirius said together. 'But we cant go to a party without all FOUR Marauders there' Sirius finished.

'Look just give me a break I'm not feeling too good at the moment can we talk about this later' and with that Remus got up and walked out of the common room through the portrait hole. His friends knew he had some sort of illness that made, needed him to take medicine every now and then, the said medicine making him grumpy a lot the few days he had to take it. They didn't push Remus on the subject as he tended to shy away whenever the topic came up, they just trusted their friend to tell them when he was ready. Remus on the other hand had no intention of telling his friends his darkest secret for fear they would be scared of him, tell everyone and he would be asked to leave Hogwarts.

The day of Halloween arrived and all Gryffindors were excited about their secret party that evening. Many decorations had been placed around their common room changing the usual red and gold colour scheme into a spooky green black and purple one. Talk of the party had spread fast around the other houses, and many were eager to attend except the Slytherins of course but the Prewitt twins had made it very clear that any non Gryffindors were only aloud to attend on invitation by the twins themselves. Most were not bothered about the other houses just a few older years who had girlfriends or boyfriends in another house.

'I think I might ask Fabian or Gideon if I can ask a Hufflepuff to the party tonight' Alice thought aloud.

'Why?' Lily asked but then seeing the look on her best friends face she added 'Who is it? Come on Ali tell me! Is it Frank? Are you going to ask him out? Does he like you? I've not heard anything but why wouldn't he like you, your amazing!' The two girls were walking to lunch after a tough ancient runes lesson.

'Slow down Lils, yes its Frank of course its Frank and I'm not sure whether to ask him or not. I mean its really last minute and he probably wont have a costume…' Alice trailed off.

'Look Ali, you know the Prewitt twins right? So that part isn't a problem. He is a wizard he can conjure up something, if not I'll do it for him. Look the twins are there' the girls just walked into the Great Hall when Lily pointed to the twins, who were sitting with a group of their friends, at the end of the Gryffindor table. They walked up to them.

'Erm Hey Fabian, Gideon I was er, was er um' Alice stuttered.

'She was wondering if she could ask a Hufflepuff third year to the party tonight' Lily interrupted knowing her friend wasn't going to be able to spit out the question. Alice blushed. The Prewitt family were close friends of Alice's family so she considered the twins to be cousins of hers.

'Hey cuz, you ok? Which Hufflepuff?' Gideon replied amused by Alice's sudden shyness.

'Er well Frank Longbottom, don't worry, I was just forget it' Alice walked off down the aisle and sat down next to Evanna, opposite Nevaeh.

'She really likes him, huh?' Fabian looked at Lily.

'Yeah she does, please let him come it would mean so much to her' Lily pleaded.

'Of course she can anything for our little cousin, just make sure he wears this' Gideon reached into his bag and pulled out what looked like a wristband Lily had seen Muggles use at theme parks. Fabian touched his wand to it. The words HUFFLEPUFF guest of Alice Jones appeared on it.

Gideon saw Lily looking at it and said 'Got the idea from muggles over the summer'

'Yeah ive seen them before they use them for theme parks, and festivals and stuff' Lily replied.

The twins looked confused 'Theme whats?'

'Never mind, thank you for this' she took the wristband and ran down the aisle to tell Alice.

'Oh Lily thank you, I made such a fool of myself and they are practically family, I just got embarrassed and I know they will tease me about this and…'

'Alice calm down, now go and ask Frank or that effort was for nothing' Lily watched as her best friend stood up and slowly walked over to the Hufflepuff table.

'Is she finally going to ask Frank out?' Nevaeh and Evanna said at the same time. Lily explained to them the conversation she had just had with Alice on her way to the hall and the chat with the twins a moment ago. The girls squealed when Alice returned two minutes later with a grin plastered across her face and a scream of 'HE SAID YES'.

For the rest of the day the girls talked about everything Alice and Frank and spent the majority of the night helping her to get ready. The party was due to start about eight so Alice was meeting Frank at quarter past outside the portrait hole as nobody would be there on time. She had handed him his wristband and stepped inside the portrait hole just as the party was getting started.

**This is a part one of two. Im sorry but I didnt want to fit it all in one chapter so I'm putting it in two. I will try to get the next one up by the end of the week. I got so excited to write this I actually neglected quite a bit of homework**

**Please Read and Review means a lot to me and may help create future story lines etc.**

**Phoebe **

**xxxxxxxxx**


	5. Secrets Revealed

~~~ Secrets Revealed ~~~

The common room was crowed, probably the most crowed it's ever been considering there were more than just Gryffindors in there. Everyone was dressed up to the point of being unrecognisable unless you knew who was wearing what costume. The walls were covered in more cobwebs than usual, pumpkins were floating over peoples head making people jump by shouting 'BOO!' or making scary noises. The room was hotter than usual due to the number of bodies crammed into the small space. People were chatting, dancing and laughing, having a good time. In the gap between the doors of the dorm stairwells was a huge table overflowing with food and drink of all kinds. There were more kinds of sweets and cakes than there were served at the feast. The Prewitt twins had made it clear that if any of the first, second or third years were seen with anything stronger than Butterbeer then they would be asked to leave the party. Sirius initially became irate at this rule but he soon cheered up after an idea struck him in their Transfiguration lesson that morning.

'Right men' Sirius said like a general 'Is everybody ready?' He looked around at his friends.

'YES SIR' James saluted Sirius mockingly.

'Right' Sirius smiled 'Does everybody know the spell?'

'Sirius your not that good at transfiguration, chances are it won't work and we will get thrown out the party, not that I want to go to this party anyway'

'My dear Remus, it does not matter that I am no good at Transfiguration because _you_ are good at it, so you can do it for us' Sirius' smile widened.

'And what if I'm not there?'

'Why wouldn't you be there? If we can't find you we will go looking for you, so you cant escape us' Sirius said matter of factly.

'Will you two please not get into another one of your arguments; I want to enjoy this night' James interrupted looking bored.

'I wish _I _could' Remus muttered. His friends missed the double meaning. For Remus knew that he would not enjoy tonight no matter what he did. Tonight was the full moon, to his friends that meant nothing in particular but to him it meant a nightmare.

He looked at his three best friends, _I should tell them, _he thought _but I know they won't want to know me anymore and my life at Hogwarts will be over. _He sighed. He looked around at his friends again.

Sirius' face was painted grey with fake cuts here and there. His shirt and trousers were ripped and torn and he was bare foot. His under top had been enchanted to look like his chest was ripped open to reveal his beating heart and breathing lungs. Zombie Sirius was bouncing around eager to join the party.

James was sitting on the edge of his bed laughing at Sirius and how childish he was acting. James was in normal robes caked with blood. His face was pale but for the red rim around his eyes and his blood red lips. Quite literally his lips were blood red dripping down his chin onto his robes. He was going to kill Sirius with in seconds of being downstairs as soon as he saw a certain someone.

Peter was watching Sirius and James, desperation in his eyes. Remus never quite understood the way Peter acted sometimes around his friends sometimes – like he was a spectator rather than part of the show. He stood dressed head to toe in black translucent robes the hood pulled back while he was upstairs he wore black elbow length gloves but the top of them couldn't be seen under the old robes. Peter had forgotten about his costume until yesterday night and had rushed around today looking for something to wear. The easiest last minute costume he could come up with was a dementor. Remus had to admit he didn't look too bad when his hood was put on properly but being a costume Peter couldn't quite glide like the soulless creatures could.

Remus turned round and looked at himself in the mirror. The reflection was a bit faded but that was the effect he was going for. Remus had found a spell in one of the many books of the Hogwarts library which would make him look slightly translucent, a ghost like effect. As Remus was not planning to stay at the party for longer than half an hour he did not want to spend to much time or effort on his costume. Despite his lack of effort he looked quite good dressed in old fashioned robes in a ghostly grey.

The four boys stepped out of their dorm, down the stairs and joined the rest of the party. Sirius and James looked around and found the drinks table. Remus sighed 'Ok I will do one bottle each but then it's up to you'

'Aw thanks Remmy I knew you would come round' Sirius hi fived James and walked over to the table.

Remus pulled out his wand and pointed it at a bottle of fire whiskey and said 'disguisirio'. The bottle transfigured itself to look identical to the Butterbeer bottle sitting next to it. Remus repeated the spell to two more bottles.

'Cheers Remmy' James said as he took a swig from his bottle. His eyes went a little fuzzy then cleared. 'This stuff is strong. You not drinking with us Remus?'

'No I'm not in the mood at the moment maybe later' Remus looked at his watch. It was 8:15 he had twenty minutes until the moon would rise high enough in the sky for things to get dangerous.

James looked round the room and caught sight of a red headed girl chatting and laughing with her friends dress in short blue robes caked in red with a pale face and something red dripping from her mouth. James face was shocked, he turned to Sirius. 'Why did you have to make me dress as a Vampire? You knew didn't you? YOU KNEW!'

'Knew what' Sirius replied with innocence.

'That Lily would be dressed as a Vampire too! Do you _want _me to get slapped she will think I planned this!'

'Hey Jamsie calm down I'm doing you a favour and if you get slapped in the process then im sure its your fault as I doubt your costume will have any difference in whether she will slap you or not' Sirius replied a smirk playing across his lips. Remus had to laugh at that last comment. 'You might as well make the most of it'

James' anger faded and a mischievous grin spread across his face 'Well I suppose your right, might as well try' James strutted over to where Lily and here friends were standing.

'Hey Lily, you look good enough to bite but it looks like someone beat me to it'

Lily slowly turned around and looked James up and down. _What a surprise _she thought _we ended up in the same costume._ 'Potter I wouldn't let those teeth anywhere near me even if my life depended on it'

'Ouch Lily that's a bit harsh isn't it, I only complimented you' James retorted casually.

'Listen Potter I want to enjoy this party with my friends and I don't want anybody to ruin that do you understand?'

'Perfectly Lils, I can assure you I wont let anybody ruin your night' James smiled 'I must say though those robes do look good on you'

'That includes you Potter'

'Look Evans why can't you just see that you could have a better night if you spent it with me'

'Over my dead body, Potter. The extremes you go to are pathetic, I mean, you matched your costume to mine just to have and excuse to talk to me'

'Actually Lily for once I did not plan this, Sirius found out what costume you were wearing and matched mine to it, he thought it would be funny. Just this once why don't you forget about the fact that you hate me and have a bit of fun? Lily, will you come and dance with me?'

'James do I have to spell it out to you, I know your brain cant handle some words so I'll spell it slowly' Lily said her voice slowing the more she spoke ' N-O SPELLS NO now will you LEAVE ME ALONE'

At that Lily walked away annoyed that her night had been ruined yet again but Potter, arrogant big headed Potter. She walked over to Remus who had managed to escape his friends and was standing by the portrait hole.

'Erg can you please tell that arrogant pig to leave me alone' Lily said disgustedly. She really did like Remus and considered him to be a really good friend. 'Please' she added normally.

'As much as you are my friend Lily, James is my best friend so for his sae do you think for once you could give him a break for all of our sakes' Remus said a bit ruder than he meant to. He felt bad but he now only had ten minutes to get out of here. Lily looked taken aback by Remus' reply.

'Im sorry I didn't realise I bothered you so much' she turned to walk away.

'No im sorry lily but im really not in the mood to hear about anybodies night being ruined just not today'

'Why? What's so special about today?'

_Damn he shouldn't have said that_ 'Erm nothing im just… Look Lily James isn't trying to annoy the hell out of you like you think he does'

'Excuse me but have you seen him lately?'

'Look Lily' his voice was rising 'No offence but I really don't care about it not now not tonight now I have to go' He finished impatiently.

Lily being a close friend of Remus knew there was something wrong. He would never be this rude to someone unless there was something up. Forgetting the way he spoke to her she followed him out of the portrait hole.

'Remus wait up' Lily called but heard no reply. Starting to get worried now she picked up her pace in order to catch him up but the boy was too fast. She followed him down the corridor, down all of the main stair cases and into the entrance hall.

_That's weird _she thought _why would he want to go outside_. Lily, panicking now because she was out of the common room after hours, looked around. She decided Remus was more important than the rules tonight. She could tell that whatever was wrong was a serious issue. Lily walked over to the large double doors and slipped through the gap left by Remus minutes ago.

It was dark outside but the full moon was shining bright on the castle grounds. She caught sight of something a little way away from her and started towards it. The shadow walked up to a large tree.

Panic took over Lily as she realised what tree Remus would be standing under – The Whomping Willow.

'REMUS' She screamed 'REMUS WATCH OUT' but to her amazement Remus walked a little to the left of the tree picked something up and walked back. He pointed the object at the tree's roots and gave them a sharp jab and the tree stood still.

Frozen in shock Lily watched as Remus walked towards the tree and disappeared.

Lily stayed there for a few minutes just staring. Where on earth could Remus have gone? She then took a couple of steps forward then continued at a jog towards the tree. When she was a few feet away from the tree, it started slowly to move again. She could see the object that Remus had picked up was a long branch that had probably fallen of the willow itself. She slowly picked it up not wanting to make any sudden movements in case the tree sensed her. After repeating Remus' movements a couple of times nothing happened, the tree continued to sway picking up speed. She tried again and suddenly the tree froze – it had finally worked. She walked up to the base of the tree and found a slight hole, big enough to fit an average wizard through, hidden between the roots.

Reluctantly she stepped into the hole and found a set of stairs leading down underground, under the tree. _Why did Remus come down here?_ At the base of the stairs was a tunnel. She stood considering going back when she heard a blood curling scream. _REMUS!_ And with out thinking she ran down the tunnel to help her friend. The scream came again and again and again. Lily pulled out her wand as she ran desperate to save her friend.

As the tunnel came to an end she did a double take as she realised she was standing in the hallway of a house. She figured it must have been in Hogsmead somewhere. A noise came from upstairs and Lily froze in fear as something appeared at the top of the stairs. Through the shadows she could not tell who or what it was, but she didn't have to wait too much longer to find out.

The figure growled low in its throat as it slowly came down the stairs step by step. It walked up to her standing about a metre away and lowered its eyes to her level. Something seemed to trigger familiarity in the red heads brain. But why? She had never seen a creature of this ferocity before.

The creature in front her stood on four thick muscular legs covered occasionally here and there with cuts and blood. The spine was pushing the skin on the back of its torso to the point of near breaking, from the inside. Each individual bone could be seen through the thin skin, and the joining of each bone to the next showing visible indents. Hairs covered its body thinner is some places than other where it looked like clumps had been torn viciously from its roots. Its narrow face had pointed ears not quite on the top or to the side but half way between the two. Its snout was pointing towards the floor but still leaving the off white pointed teeth clearly in view. Saliva was dripping slowly from the mouth, the beast was hungry.

But it was the eyes, the yellow slits of eyes that had triggered the familiarity. Then suddenly everything clicked into place in Lily's brain. The strange behaviour. The sickness. The monthly disappearances. The agitation. The look on his face. The reason why he had unintentionally led her down here. The reason for the screams. His absence now. Except he wasn't absent.

Lily looked into those yellow eyes and realised…she was staring into the eyes of her friend. Into the eyes of Remus Lupin.

**There we go another chapter down – the longest by far, but also my favourite.**

**I know most people who right marauder fanfics choose for Remus' three best friends to find out his secret first and initially this chapter was going to be written for them but I was watching prisoner of Azkaban the other day and Remus was saying 'your mother was there for me at a time nobody else was' or something along those lines so that made me wonder maybe Lily found out first.**

**Thought I'd right it different :)**

**R&R please **

**Phoebe xxx**


	6. Heartbreak and Nightmares

~~~ Heartbreak and Nightmares ~~~

Lily stood there frozen in terror. Her mind was too stunned to explain what was happening in front of her or to tell her to run. A noise came from upstairs and the wolf made the mistake of turning its head towards it. This gave Lily her chance she ran into the next room and slammed the door shut behind her, magically sealing it shut. BANG! Lily jumped. It was Remus trying to get in she backed away from the door as Remus continuously charged at the door trying to open it. Lily moved one of the tables in front of the door followed by a chair on top. She had seen countless muggles do this in films but they never seemed to work, Lily hoped that combined with her magic that it would be enough. Then a thought struck her. Most of the muggle films she had watch the characters had not realised there had been another door or entry into their room. She quickly scanned her eyes around the room until she found what she had been dreading – another door! Suddenly everything went quiet; the wolf must have had the same idea. Quickly repeating the spell on the other door, just in time as wolf Remus charged forwards, Lily leant against the wall and slithered down to the floor realisation finally hitting her and she did the only reasonable thing she could think of – she cried. She sat there for what seemed like hours before Remus finally gave in. Slowly she drifted off into a light sleep but still keeping alert.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Meanwhile back in Gryffindor common room the Halloween party was in full swing. It was nearing midnight. Most of the seventh and sixth years had had far too much to drink and were successfully acting in ways they would regret by the morning. The fourth and fifth years – and Sirius – were tipsy but not as drunk as the older years. Everybody was having a good time, but the absences of two friends were starting to become apparent.

'I wonder where Lily is I haven't seen her all night.' Alice wondered aloud.

'I'm sure she is ok Ali' Frank said as he put his hands in hers. 'I've got to hand it to the Prewitt twins, I mean i've heard about Gryffindor parties before, but wow you lot sure do know how to through a good party'

Frank seemed just as excited as Alice over being her asking him to be her date as Alice did. All of his friends knew he had had a crush on Alice since the previous year and were all betting on who would make the first move. He had danced and talked and snogged Alice all night and could not be happier.

'Hey guys have you been enjoying your date?' Evanna said winking at Frank who blushed.

'Yeah it's been really fun' Alice beamed 'we were just saying we haven't seen Lily all night, have you?'

'Come to think of it I haven't either, how strange, she isn't up in the dorm is she?'

'Is who up in the dorm' Sirius interrupted sliding in between Evanna and Nevaeh – who had been dragged over by Evanna.

'We were just saying Black that Lily has disappeared, know one has seen her in the last few hours, don't suppose you have seen her have you?' Evanna replied.

Sirius raised his eyebrows 'Hmm interesting Lily-pad is absent'

'You know she hates it when you call her that'

'Quiet Shorty, this is very interesting' Sirius' eyes glistened with something that the girls couldn't figure out but knew they didn't like.

'And you know I hate it when you call me…'Evanna started but was interrupted by Nevaeh.

'What's so interesting Black?'

'Well, we were just saying we haven't seen Remus all night either so a guy is missing a girl is missing…does anybody see where I'm going with this? Anyone?'

The group were silent for a moment considering what Sirius was saying, when James walked over looked around the group and said 'Why is everyone looking so serious? I know _you _can't help it mate, but what's up? He looked around the group again. Alice, frank Nevaeh and Sirius started giggling. 'What'd I say? What's so funny?' looking confused now.

'Mate, we aren't serious, well I am but you get what I mean, we were just thinking about the absence of Remus and a certain girl' Sirius braced himself and took a step away from James 'a certain red headed girl'

A look of confusion passed over James face again and everyone braced themselves for his reaction. To the girls and Frank's surprise hurt was the first emotion across his face as they were all expecting anger – which came soon after. Sirius knowing his best mate knew this would hurt him the idea that his friend and the girl he liked were both missing at a party where there was alcohol involved. But James wasn't the first to speak.

'Remus wouldn't do that!' Evanna spoke so loud she made everyone jump despite the music being loud. 'He wouldn't do that! Why would he do that?' Everyone stared at the girl all thinking what was she on about, she sounded like the situation personally affected her.

'What are you on about? Of course Remus wouldn't do that to his best friend, but why does it bother you so much?' Alice said wondering why her friend was reacting so.

'Realising her reaction, Evanna stuttered then muttered under her breathe 'Erm I er think I heard someone call my name, er I'll see you lot later'

'Well what was that about?' Sirius asked twice as confused as the girls. In the mean time James hadn't said a word.

'Beats me, is James alright? Nevaeh asked concerned.

'Yeah he'll be fine' Sirius turned to James come on mate lets get you upstairs, night girls, Frank' they muttered a 'night' back and watched as Sirius dragged a still silent James up to their dormitory.

'You know I think he really actually cares for her, and likes her, more than just annoying her like Lily thinks' Nevaeh said softly sighing.

'Yeah I think your right, I wonder how long it will take Lily to notice though – that's the big question' Alice replied leaning into Frank and resting her head on his shoulders. Despite this being their first date, Frank and Alice looked like they had been together half their lives. Seeing this Nevaeh sensed her exit and bid the pair goodbye saying she was going to find Evanna and see why she had acted they way she had.

Up in the third year boys' dorm Sirius brought James to his bed pushed him down and jumped, landing on the end.

'Cheer up Jamie'

'Do you seriously think she is with Remus?'

'Honestly I'm surprised you even have to ask me that, Remus is your friend and he knows how you feel he wouldn't do that to you, and seriously dude your acting like a girl'

James knew Sirius understood his pain and was trying to cheer him up, he also knew he was right, Remus wouldn't do that to him, but where was he? And where was Lily? Were they together? If so what were they doing?

'Yeah I know your right and repeat that about me being a girl again and you'll find yourself in the hospital wing' James tried to smile but it didn't come across too successful. 'I don't really feel like going back downstairs so I'm going to crash, night' He pulled the curtains around his bed closed unaware if Sirius had left or not. James drifted off into a light sleep dreaming about a future where he and his friends were running around the grounds laughing and joking. He ran towards a group of people not too far away and ran straight into the arms of a red headed young woman who laughed with him and ruffled his hair. He sat down and pulled her back into his arms, kissing her cheek. James smiled in his sleep as the dream faded and he fell into a deeper dreamless sleep.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Lily woke up unaware of why her back was hurting and where her pillow, mattress and quilt had gone. Then all the images of last night flooded into her brain and she shrieked. Remus. Werewolf. Here. Next door. She slowly sat up and looked around. A clock across the room told her it was seven o'clock and light was coming from the window so it must have been seven in the morning, how long had she been here? She pulled her wand out of her pocket, if the sun was up were-Remus must be gone. She levitated the chair and table away from the door not feeling physically or emotionally strong enough to move them manually. When she opened the door she saw a sight she had not expected. Remus was laying face down in the middle of the floor, black and blue and covered in blood and completely naked. _I can't leave him here, I know what he is but he is still my friend. _She undid the cloak from around her neck that was part of her vampire clothing she was wearing and draped it over him. She looked worse for wear but it was nothing to what Remus looked like at the moment. Using her wand she conjured a stretcher and levitated him onto it. He stirred at the movement.

'Lily' he choked 'I'm so sorry'

'Stop it, you need help does Madame Pomfrey know about er your situation' Lily asked unsure if she could say just what this 'situation' was. When Remus nodded she flicked her wand and Remus started to move towards the door as he fell unconscious again. Lily stepped out of the tunnel and brought Remus on the stretcher out behind her only to turn around to face a confused and concerned Madame Pomfrey.

'Miss Evans, what are you doing here?'

_Ah crap _Lily decided the truth was her best option so she explained how she had fought with Remus, realised something was wrong and followed him only to find out exactly what was wrong. When she had finished Madame Pomfrey asked if she was alright and when Lily nodded insisted she follow up to the hospital wing so she could be checked properly. So, the three of them set off towards the castle as the sun continued to creep up into the sky.

Madame Pomfrey checked Lily was ok and then insisted that she stay in the hospital wing to sleep. She would be excused from her classes, which she initially refused but then realising how tired she was accepted the pj's she was offered stepped behind the screen and changed out of her costume and wiped the fake blood off of her face. Madame Pomfrey looked horrified when she had seen the blood but calmed down after Lily explained it was part of her costume and reminded her that Gryffindor had had a party last night.

Remus cried out in pain from behind another screen. Lily got up quickly and ran over waving her hands around unsure what to do.

'Just return to your bed dear, he will be fine in a few hours, well as fine as you can be after what happened. But go back to bed you have had a huge shock tonight you need to go to bed.'

'But miss, I just want to help' yaawwwnn 'myyyy friennnnd'

'You can help him once you have had some sleep'

Reluctantly Lily returned to her bed but was far too awake to even consider sleeping. Over the next hour she drifted off and started dreaming, she was locked in a room with something strange in the corner, realising what it was she screamed.

Lily awoke, sitting bolt upright screaming from her bed in the hospital wing.

**Hope you all liked it, i have the next chapter all planned out in my head just need time to write it all down**

**please spread the word if you like this story**

**R&R**

**phoebe :)**

**xxxxxxxxxxxxx**


	7. True Friendship

**Sorry i almost didnt get this chapter up this week been really busy, not as long as the last but necessary i think :)**

**enjoy :)**

**ps. just a quick thank you to ClaireBear1982 who has showed continuous support and reviewed every chapter so far thanks ;)**

~~~ True Friendship ~~~

The next morning Evanna, Nevaeh and Alice woke up with a throbbing headache unsure as to why. Each slowly opened their eyes and sat up in bed. They looked around at each other seeing that each of them felt as bad as each other. How had they ended up like this?

'Ergh my head hurts so much. What happened?' Alice groaned.

'I don't know what happened, all I know is that I did not drink that much, not enough to feel like this' Evanna sighed.

'Me neither, the last thing I remember was standing talking to Sirius about Lily with Frank and then…Oh no my date with Frank, I don't even remember my first date with Frank!' Alice sounded as if she was about to cry. She had been waiting for this day for so long and it had been ruined.

'Wait what did you say?' Nevaeh said.

'I said my date with Frank! I don't remember'

'No not that bit the part about Sirius and Lily?'

'The last thing I remember is talking to Sirius because…because we couldn't do something, something to do with Lily' Alice thought for a minute 'that's it we couldn't find Lily'

'Lily? Oh yeah well looks like she's still asleep, I'm sure she is fine, I wonder if she feels crap too?' Nevaeh shrugged and lay back down to bed. 'Crap we have lessons!'

All three girls immediately jumped up and groaned at the pain in their heads. It was eight o'clock and breakfast was only being served for another half an hour if they weren't ready soon they would miss it and then be late for classes.

'Someone wake Lily up while I take a shower' Nevaeh called over her shoulder as she ran for the bathroom.

'Sure thing' Evanna called as she hoped over to Lily's bed whilst trying to pull her socks on. 'Lily, Lily wake up!' She pulled back the curtains surrounding Lily's bed 'oh she's not here, maybe she went down to breakfast already'

'But why wouldn't she wake us up? That's not like her' Alice replied confused.

'Maybe she got up early and didn't want to wake us?'

'Yeah, maybe'

Fifteen minutes later the three girls were showered and changed and were slowly making their way down to the Great Hall. They walked up to Gryffindor table, noticed Lily was nowhere to be seen and sat down each resting their heads in their hands.

'Well don't you lot look cheerful this morning' Sirius said sarcastically sitting down next to Alice.

'Go away Black I'm not in the mood today'

'Feeling a bit rough this morning Shorty?'

'Yeah you don't know how we got like this do you?'

'Yeah of course, you lot looked like you were depressed after finding out Lily was missing with Remus and so after I took James upstairs I came back down and swapped your Butterbeer for Fire Whiskey' He grinned.

'YOU DID WHATT?' Alice and Nevaeh screamed causing half of the students eating breakfast to turn around, whilst Evanna screamed 'LILY WAS WITH REMUS'

'Yeah don't you lot remember anything, I suppose your first time drunk you don't really, anyway drink this' He reached into his bag and pulled out three vials full of a florescent blue liquid and handed one to each girl 'Bottoms up' he encouraged.

'What is that?' Nevaeh took the bottle apprehensively.

'It's an "I want to sober up" potion, honestly do you think any of us marauders could drink and get a hangover, what a waste of a day who wants to feel like crap? 'He asked looking round at the girls.

'I don't care what it does, just as long as it takes away this bloody headache' Evanna stated and then downed the contents in one.

'How do you feel?'

'Great Ali, God this stuff is amazing'

The other too girls quickly downed the vial and choked.

'God that tastes disgusting'

'What did you think it would taste of pumpkin juice Nevy' Sirius had decided to give all the girls their own nickname and each girl hated their own one.

'Urgh so what were you saying about Lily and Remus? Do you know where she is?'

'Nope no one has seen either of them since last night, I wonder what they got up to?' Sirius raised his eyebrows.

'Remus and Lily?' Evanna said confused. 'No they wouldn't he wouldn't'

'He wouldn't because he knows how crazy James is about her' Sirius said 'Hmm anyway I better go and see if Frank is ok he drunk the Fire Whiskey too'

'I'll do it, I want to talk to him anyway' and with that Alice got up and walked over to the Hufflepuff table with the vial, where a very hung-over Frank had his head on the table.

Sirius walked back up the table where James and Peter had just sat down.

'Remus still not showed up?'

'Nope haven't seen him' James said stuffing some sausage in his mouth 'but this isn't the first time he has disappeared, have the girls seen Lily?' he said still hoping that his best mate hadn't spent the night with his girl, well not his girls but she was still untouchable by Remus.

'Nope she hasn't turned up either, not like Evans to miss classes though so she'll probably be in Defence first'

But Lily did not turn up to Defence against the Dark Arts, or Transfiguration or any other lessons and neither did Remus. Both of their friends worried about their whereabouts but nobody seemed to remember seeing them at the party.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Meanwhile in the hospital wing Lily was sitting up in her bed unable to sleep, thinking about the previous night. The second she had closed her eyes after arriving in the hospital wing she had woken up screaming. After Madame Pomfrey had given her a calming draught she became aware of her surroundings. She was in the hospital wing and not in the shrieking shack or the forest like her dream. She had heard Remus whisper words like 'sorry' 'monster' and 'expelled' but Lily couldn't bring it to herself to talk to him just yet she just needed time to think, which is what she was doing now.

She had noticed Remus' disappearances before, and had become curious about them. She noted they were occurring on a regular monthly basis but the date was never the same. Once checking her star charts last month after her third astronomy lesson of the year, she had come to the conclusion that he was a lunar creature, and the Defence lesson on what they would be studying that year had given her the thought of a werewolf. But lily didn't know how to confirm her suspicions, she didn't want to ask him up front for fear of offending her friend but now they had been confirmed. But she didn't care. Lily still felt the pain for her friend who was lying across the room hurt, badly hurt despite what he may be.

Lily got up out of her bed and strolled over to Remus' bed but hesitated before going behind the screen.

'Remus?' she whispered 'are you awake?'

'Lily' a broken voice whispered back 'oh lily, are you ok?'

'I'm fine, err, is it alright if I come in?'

'Yeah it's ok'

Lily stepped around the screen and gasped. Although she had seen him earlier that morning he looked nothing as to how he looked now. The blood had been cleaned up but the bruises where starting to show all over his face, neck, arms and chest and she imagined continued over his legs and back.

'It looks a lot worse than it actually is' he laughed but then flinched 'Look Lily i'm really sorry I didn't know you were following me, well I did, but I didn't think you would go out into the grounds, let alone get passed the whomping willow. I will completely understand if you never want to talk to me again or tell everyone I don't know why your still here now I just…'

'Remus stop' Lily interrupted placing her hand on his shoulder where there were no cuts or bruises 'Remus listen to me I don't care'

'You what? But?'

'I said listen. I don't care what you turn into once a month you have been a, a werewolf' she struggled to say the word 'for as long as I've known you and you have been nothing but kind to me despite your arrogant friends' she giggled 'you are still and will always be my friends Remus no matter what, you hear me? I know you think you are a monster but you are a good person and I am here for you whenever you need me, ok?'

'Lily' Remus smiled a huge smile of relief and gratitude 'Lily thank you so much you don't know how much that means to me'

Lily smiled back 'Just as long as I don't get a visit from your alter-ego anytime soon I will be ok'

They both laughed.

'And to be honest with you, I sort of figured it out, well almost anyway'

Remus stared at her incredulously 'Really?'

'Yeah well anyway I just wanted you to know that, so you need to stop feeling guilty. You also need to rest so I'll speak to you later' Lily waved goodbye and went back to her bed and fell into a dreamless sleep too tired to stay awake.

**please review **

**phoebe xx**


	8. The Cover Up Story

**Anyone who follows this story – please ignore the email you would have received this morning I was correcting a mistake I made in chapter one **

**Please stick with my story **

**Enjoy :)**

~~~ The Cover Up Story~~~

After breakfast at Hogwarts, people started to notice Lily's absence from class. Not one of her teachers mentioned anything which people found odd. Lily NEVER missed a lesson, EVER, the teachers new this and all of the third years knew this. Rumours started to fly around the Gryffindors and then the Hufflepuff's and finally the Ravenclaw's – the Slytherins did not care for anything to do with their opposing houses, especially Gryffindor. Remus' absence, although not usually noticed, was drawn to most people's attentions too. The two Gryffindors appeared to have gotten up to a lot in the 24 hours they had been missing. From running off to spend time together as a couple, to wandering into the Forbidden Forrest and getting lost (in some cases) or kidnapped by some dark creature (in others). But all the affect this had was increasing the worries of Lily's best friends. It was now nine o'clock at night and the three girls were sitting in their common room talking in low quick whispers.

'Where is she?' Alice said for the fiftieth time in the last hour.

'Ali you don't think something has happened to her, do you?'

'Neev stop saying that, I'm sure she is fine'

'Then where is she Evanna, we haven't seen her all day. Remus still hasn't turned up either, they are probably together! Something has happened'

'Seriously Neev you need to calm down Lily will…'

'Did someone say my name?' All three girls jumped out of their skins, as soon as they realised who had spoke they jumped up and pounced on Lily.

'Lily, oh Merlin, where have you been? Why didn't you come back? Where is Remus? Were you together? Are you ok?' All three said at once.

'Whoa girls calm down I'm fine'

'So what happened?'

'What happened? Oh well I think someone er spiked my er drink last night' Lily lied 'and I er somehow ended up in the hospital wing, I've been there all day' she decided to at least stick to the truth on that last part.

'What! Are you ok?' Alice hugged her friend.

'Yeah, yeah I'm fine just needed to get over the side effects of whatever was put in my drink'

'SIRIUS!' Nevaeh screamed across the common room 'SIRIUS GET HERE NOW!'

'Hey honey, you called?' Sirius said as he sat down, James and Peter following behind.

'What did you put in Lily's drink?' she replied icily.

'Lily's drink? Nothing. Why?' Sirius replied confused.

'Because someone spiked her drink and she ended up in the hospital wing, now you spiked our drinks so what did you put in hers?'

'Wait he spiked your drinks?' Lily said shocked the same time James said 'You spiked Lily's drink?'

'Calm down you two. Yes I spiked Nevy's, shorty's and vans' drink' he said looking at lily then turned to James 'But no I did not spike Lily-pads drink I didn't even know where she was' he turned back to lily 'nice to know your still alive, a couple more hours and I would have been worried.' Sirius put on a dramatic worried expression but James interrupted his little scene.

'So what happened to Remus, did the pair of you have a nice night?' he said in a strained voice.

'Remus? His drink got spiked too! He is still in the hospital wing'

'Still! What did you two get up to last night?' Sirius raised his eyebrows.

'Well err when we, I mean after our drink got spiked I don't really remember but we were found outside, by the whomping willow, Remus got hit pretty bad'

'He got hit by that tree, is he ok?' James said quickly forgetting all resentment to his friend.

'Yeah he is fine but Madame Pomfrey said no visitors, what so ever, marauders included' she pointed at James, Peter and Sirius in turn.

'I'm sure we can work our way around that' Sirius said in a mischievous voice.

'Yeah you've got no chance, anyway I'm tired, and Madame Pomfrey told me to rest. Night girls' and with that she waved to her friends and left the common room.

The boys went back to their corner and continued to talk. Everyone soon started to drift out of the common room and off to bed. The boys had other plans than sleeping.

To keep up appearances the boys went upstairs to their dorm but only for an half an hour or so. At 11 o'clock the boys were back down in the common room with James invisibility cloak.

'Are you sure, we might get caught'

'Peter, Peter, Peter how many times have we done this? And have we ever been caught?' James said.

'No I suppose not, lets go' and with that the three boys disappeared from view. The portrait hole opened and closed and they set down the corridor slowly towards the hospital wing.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Lily walked through her dorm door and slopped down on her bed thinking about the last 24 hours. She hated lying to her friends, but she also hated betraying a friend too. If she told the girls the truth then she would be betraying Remus and she suddenly felt that by betraying him and hurting him she would hurt herself just as bad. Having a secret as big as this to share with someone involves a huge amount of trust. Lily realised Remus was literally trusting her with his life and she would show him he was right to do so. Lily vowed then and there that she would do whatever it takes to make Remus' monthly transformation easier. She will be there when he wakes up. She will visit him in the hospital. She will try to convince him he isn't the monster he thinks he is. She will do whatever she can.

Lily quickly pulled closed the drapes around her bed as she heard voices and their dorm door open. She listened as her friends said goodnight to each other and got into bed. Then a thought suddenly struck her. The boys were likely to visit Remus while the castle slept; she knew they didn't care about getting caught. Normally she wouldn't dare to wander the castle alone at night, but this was different – Remus didn't know the cover story.

She waited for twenty minutes until she heard the light snoring of her three friends, then she slipped her shoes back on and quietly made her way down to the common room and out of the portrait hole.

'I'm trying to sleep here, students have no respect' Lily heard the muttering of the Fat Lady behind her, but she kept on going. Carful not to get caught she quietly picked up her pace; she had to get there before the boys.

Eight minutes later Lily pushed open the door to the hospital wing. It was quiet, they weren't here.

'Remus' she stepped towards his bed 'Remus, are you awake?'

'Hello? oh Lily what are you doing back here, I thought you got discharged' It was clear that Remus hadn't slept well that day but his bruises and cuts seemed to be slowly fading, though he looked far from healthy.

'Look I'm sorry to wake you but when I went up to the common room Potter and Black came over and asked where I had been and if you had been with me. I told them our drinks got spiked and we ended up out on the grounds. So I told them we woke up in the hospital wing, unaware of how we got there, only that it looked like you got hit by the whomping willow.'

Remus looked at lily shocked at how good her cover story was. 'Impressive but why did you feel the need to tell me now at this time, you'll get in to trouble if you're caught'

'I meant what I said about keeping your secret and being here for you, well this is me keeping my promise' she stated matter of factly 'I told Black you were off limits, that Madame Pomfrey wasn't allowing visitors'

'And?'

'So I figured they wouldn't listen and they would come down here but you didn't know the cover story'

'Yeah that does sound like them, but I could have just feigned sleep, say I only just woke up'

'Oh yeah I didn't think of that' Lily was starting to feel really stupid now 'er sorry I'll go now and let you sleep' she headed towards the door.

'Lily' she turned around and stepped closer to Remus 'thank you, you will never know how much that means to me, that you care despite what I am'

'Despite what you are? You are human Remus we all have our faults' she smiled, waved and headed towards the door but panicked. Coming from the other side of the door were the unmistakable voices of three Gryffindor third years.

'Quick get behind those screens, over there at the back, quickly' Remus pointed to some spare screens next to the last bed on the wing. Lily sprinted over there and hid just as the doors were pushed open.

'Ergh we really can't all fit under this thing anymore, I can see your feet James look' and the dark haired owner of the voice suddenly appeared.

'Siri it's just because you kept pulling on the cloak' James chuckled as he shed the cloak off of himself and Peter.

'Remus, oi Remus, are you up?'

'Of course I am Sirius with how loud your talking most of the castle is up' he laughed 'hey mate' he smiled as James appeared in his view.

'I hear you walked into a tree?' James smirked

'Yeah just a little one out on the grounds' Sirius came into view.

'Alright, alright which one of you was it?' Remus looked at each boy in turn 'which one of you idiots spiked our drinks'

'It wasn't us'

'Chill Peter I was only joking I know you wouldn't spike our drinks well you'd spike mine but James wouldn't let anyone spike Lily's, so what are you guys doing here in the middle of the night?'

'We came to see our injured soldier, having the marauders minus the bookworm is just not quite the same'

'Yeah James is right, there is no one there to talk about boring books or work' Sirius smiled and jumped onto the bottom of the bed causing Remus to wince. 'Oops sorry'

'Nah, it's alright, so what did I miss at the party, then?'

'Well I think Sirius managed to dance with almost every girl in the house, excluding the first years' James laughed at the memory.

'I was having a good time that's no crime, but this one girl in fourth year is hawt, I mean she had this long brunette hair down to her waist and she wore this tight black outfit and…'

'There is more to girls than just their looks you know, Siri'

'Yeah but Remus you should see her'

'What's her name?' James smirked

'Her name' Sirius thought for a minute 'her name? Damn er I should know that'

Lily rolled her eyes from where she was hiding. Typical Sirius only caring about looks, and not her name, its only one word its not that hard to remember.

'Yeah well Jamie, at least I didn't spend the whole time sulking'

'Shut up, I'm serious'

'No mate I'm Sirius your James, a thirteen year old should know his name by now'

'Shut up you know what I meant'

'Why was he sulking?' Remus said confused.

'Lily why else' Peter sighed. The red-heads ear pricked up at the mention of her name.

'Lily? What did Lily do to you? She was with me the whole night, I think?'

'Well Remus, that's exactly why, because she spent the whole night with you?'

'What? Pete, that makes no sense?'

'That's exactly what I said Remmy. James believed that Lily and you were well' Sirius looked over at James who had turned away from his friends and was staring at the door 'getting to know each other better'.

Remus laughed out loud 'Me…and…Lily…are you kidding, I mean she is a lovely, kind girl' Lily smiled 'but I would never do that to you mate, your like my brother. I would never do that because I know how you feel about her'

Lily rolled her eyes again, Potter and his stupid obsession with her was getting on her nerves. _He only wants me because he can't have me._

With a pretty good idea of what Lily was thinking at that moment Remus added 'I know that she is more than just some girl to you, I wouldn't hurt you that much, like I said were brothers, all of us'

'You sure nothing happened?'

'She is just a friend James, a really good friend, I owe her a lot' Lily smiled again 'but I would not risk being on the receiving ends of one of your jinxes or pranks' He laughed again and James joined in.

'Well now that's all over we need to talk about this prank we are doing in a couple of days, for that muggle Firework Night, I don't know why wizards don't celebrate it to be honest' Sirius looked deep in thought as to why.

'How many times have I told you, it's to do with the muggle government' Remus yawned he could really do with getting some sleep right now. 'Government is like the ministry' he added because of the confused look on James face.

'Still we should still celebrate it'

'Yeah I agree with Sirius' Peter said.

'Well let's get on with the plans then'

'James I sort of got attacked by a tree, that really tires some people out did you know?'

'Oh yeah forgot about that, we'll make it quick'

And the four boys quickly fell into a conversation outlining every detail of their prank that would commence in the next few days while Lily rested her head against the wall waiting for them to leave.

**I hope to get the next chapter up soon, hopefully tomorrow**

**Hope you liked it so far **

**Please review**

**Phoebe xxx**


	9. A Wizard Spin on a Muggle Tradition

**As promised a second chapter this weekend thanks to very little homework (thank god) this one is a little less intense than the last couple of chapters**

**Enjoy :)**

~~~ A Wizard Spin on a Muggle Tradition~~~

The boys stayed in the hospital wing until one o'clock when they decided that Remus needed some sleep so they put the cloak back on and headed out the door back to the Gryffindor common room.

'Lily! Lily they have gone'

No reply

'Lily' he said a little louder

'Wha?' Lily said sleepily

'They have gone I'm sorry they stayed so long I tried to get them to leave'

'No its fiiiiinnnnneee' she yawned 'I'm going to go back before one of my friends wake up and find me missing' she yawned again 'night'

So lily made her way back to the common room however when she reached the fourth floor she heard voices.

'Crap Filch's cat'

_Damn. The boys! _Lily rushed into the nearest classroom.

'Quick, we need to hide' Peter said panicking.

'Pete calm down we are invisible'

'James look at our feet, we don't fit under this thing'

'Yeah your right get into that classroom, hopefully Filch wont notice us' Sirius said quickly.

The three boys quickly ran into the next classroom they saw but stayed under the cloak.

'I wish there was a way to see when people were coming, with out bumping into them first' James said disgruntled.

'What you mean like a map of some form?' Peter said.

'Yeah something like that'

'Well why don't we make one? Can't be that hard. Yeah, we will draw it then charm it' Sirius said imagining the whole thing in his mind.

'Well I suppose we could try, although I doubt it will be that easy Siri, but I suggest we don't even try until Remus is better, he is the only one with a chance of getting anywhere with that idea'

'Agreed' Sirius said 'wait did you here that' a soft cough had come from the back of the classroom in the shadows, then it came again 'that can't you hear it'

'No I think you've lost it'

'No James there is someone in here' Sirius took a step forward.

Suddenly James saw a flash of red in the moonlight coming from the window.

'Evans?' James said shocked 'What are you doing here?' No one else in the school had that colour hair, although there were other red heads, James knew her colour he had stared at it too many times, pulled it over and over again in first year and even put gum in it accidentally last June.

'Evans?' Sirius said confused.

'Yeah just come out Evans we know it's you!'

Incredibly annoyed at being caught Lily stepped out of the shadows 'what do you want Potter?' but she stepped out from behind the desk only to see, well, nothing. She looked around confused. 'Wait, where are you?'

'What are you doing here?'

'I asked first' James shed the cloak revealing himself, Sirius and Peter.'What the? Where did you come from?'

'Disillusionment charm' he lied smoothly.

'I've never seen it work like that before'

'That's because I'm not very good at it' James smiled. 'So I answered yours now you answer mine'

'I just needed a change of scenery, I couldn't sleep – if it's any of your business' Lily said coldly 'what are you doing out this late?'

'Er Marauder adventure' James eyes flashed with something Lily couldn't recognise.

'If you two love birds have finished flirting, we need to get back to the tower before Filch turns up'

'Love birds? Shut it Black' Lily stormed out of the room and headed back to the tower.

'Did you have to say that? She hates us enough as it is'

'Yeah, oh well now she's mates with Remmy she might warm up to us'

'Yeah I highly doubt that if you keep saying stuff like that' Peter laughed.

James threw the cloak back over his friends and they headed back to the tower. The next day Remus was released just in time for lunch. His fellow Marauders cheered as he walked up to the Gryffindor table and sat down with a smile. After the buzz of Halloween the school started to calm down a bit but that was all about to change when the Gryffindors all woke up to a loud BANG on the morning of the 5th.

The tower was filled with screams because at exactly 5 am one of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No-Heat Fireworks went off at the centre of every dorm causing them to glow and wake up everyone in the room. This caused the whole of Gryffindor house to be in a bad mood all accept four third year boys. Each firework had exploded into the form of a large letter M which stayed alight and glowing until everyone had got out of bed. The combined noise of every firework sent a violent ripple of sound throughout the castle, loud enough, Sirius was sure, that the Slytherins down in the dungeons could hear too.

But of course this being a Marauder prank it didn't stop there. Outside each of the other common room was a different surprise for each house. James and Sirius had been in charge with what the Slytherins had to deal with. Every time one of them exited their common room a red or gold firework was waiting to explode into the form of lion that would chase said Slytherin down the corridor until they hit the Great Hall. Even though most found the fireworks annoying, all of the other houses got satisfaction out of seeing screaming Slytherins running around the castle and into the Great Hall only to realise everyone was watching and laughing.

The Hufflepuff's suffered a shock from a firework every time they went with in a 1 metre proximity of anyone of the opposite gender. And finally the Ravenclaw's had a firework following every group that buzzed louder the more the conversation became intellectual.

By the time everyone had been woken up, shocked, chased or deafened they were all hopeful the fireworks were starting to die down, but they were wrong.

At eight fifteen when the whole school was sitting down for breakfast, teachers included, a scream was heard coming from the entrance hall. Everyone went silent as Filch ran into the Great Hall being chased but no more than ten fireworks. They chased him halfway down the hall and then flew into the air and spelt out

'THE MARAUDERS WOULD LIKE TO WISH THE STUDENTS OF HOGWARTS A HAPPY FIREWORK NIGHT'

This was promptly followed by the entrance of the Marauders into the Great Hall. Everyone cheered as they saw them, everyone except the Slytherins and the teachers. Sirius, Remus and James dramatically bowed and Peter being the quieter one of the four did a short bow.

'Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew my office now' a rather scarily high pitched voice called.

'Oh Minnie, you wish to see us'

'Mr Black, do not push your luck now the lot of you, go now'

'But Professor, we have plans to sort out, these things take time, what the student body has failed to see is that our little message says 'Happy Firework _Night_' meaning there is more to come' Everyone looked around at each other at the prospect of more chaos and laughs.

'Now what James here is saying is true, either our plans will commence under our supervision, where we can stop it at any point if something goes wrong or you can put us in detention and everything can go terrible wrong' Sirius had the smuggest look anyone had ever dared to have in front of McGonagall.

The Professor hesitated for the slightest moment to decide which option was better, but that told all four Marauders they had won. Sure they were going to get detentions for this, but this was nothing as to what was planned that evening and it was one hundred percent worth it.

The rest of the day the entire school waited in anticipation but morning lessons passed and nothing happened. Morning break passed and nothing happened. More lessons passed and still nothing. Every student and staff member knew the marauders were not bluffing so each entered the Great Hall for lunch with apprehension but still nothing happened. The longer everyone waited the more worried they got about what was waiting for them, but they only had till lessons were over.

As the halls of Hogwarts became clogged up with chatting students just released from the dull lessons stage two of the prank started.

James atop his broom flew down the charms corridor above the heads of students, randomly tossing fireworks behind him making everyone jump. Exactly five seconds after each left his hand they exploded forming the shape of an arrow in either red or gold pointing in James direction. Around the castle Sirius, Remus and Peter, followed by screams of fear and excitement, were doing exactly the same. Sirius was zooming down the transfiguration corridor grinning like a maniac when suddenly he swooped down and stopped in front of a fourth year Gryffindor girl.

'Hey sweetie, care to join me' he smiled at the girl who he had spent the majority of the Halloween party with.

The girl whose name he still couldn't remember looked around at her friends giggled and nodded.

'Hop on then' He pointed to the back of the broom, the girl quickly obeyed and the pair were zooming off down the corridor.

The whole of Hogwarts was covered in glowing red and gold arrows all pointing in the same direction – the entrance hall. The four marauders (and Sirius' girl) all gathered still on brooms in the entrance hall and waited for the school to follow their arrows. Once a large group formed in the corridor all four brooms suddenly dropped to the ground nose first causing a large group of girls from Ravenclaw scream and duck. But just before they hit the floor they pulled up and flew out of the main doors and onto the grounds.

The dark sky was suddenly lit up with hundreds of explosions of colour and shapes. The students all oooed and ahhed and cheered at the display.

James looked at Sirius who nodded. James scanned the crowd looking for someone and once he found her he dived forward causing the crowd to scream again. He grabbed the unsuspecting red-head and pulled her onto the back of his broom as he returned to the sky.

'What the? POTTER WHAT ARE YOU DOING? PUT ME DOWN!' Lily hated flying so any unnecessary trips into the air did not make her happy especially if they involved Potter.

'Lighten up Evans and enjoy the view' just as James spoke Sirius threw another firework in the sky that formed into the shape of a heart with the message JP 4 LE inside. At that moment Lily regretted falling asleep in the hospital wing and missing what part of their plan involved her.

'POTTER PUT ME DOWN' Lily screamed again and continued to speak but was drowned out by the sound of another firework exploding into the shape of a letter M. At that the entire Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw house cheered. Even a few of the teachers smiled, although they hated to admit it, the marauders were good.

'Potter if you do not put me down, this instant I will ahhhhhh' she screamed and instinctively put her arms around his waist so not to fall as James dived again. He and Sirius were putting on a show of their own on their brooms. Sirius discovered the girl he picked up was called Rosie whilst doing a neat loop-the-loop showing off to his crowd.

'Evans, try being polite it gets you a lot further in life'

'Fine Potter will you please put me down?'

'As you asked so nicely' he dived again this time pulling Lily off of his broom and gently placing her on the ground where he found her next to Alice and returned to the sky without loosing control of his broom once 'Bye love' he called over his shoulder and Lily got some rather nasty looks sent her way by surrounding girls.

The display continued for another hour each firework showing figures in green being defeated by those in red and gold, but the large M and James heart for Lily did not fade until long into the night. The spectators continued to cheer and clap enjoying the wizard spin on the muggle celebration.

**Hope you enjoyed it half term is next week so should be posting a couple of extra chapters**

**Phoebe xxx**


	10. Sticky Glue

**Hi everyone, thank you for sticking with my story it means a lot. This chapter is a little longer than previous chapters. I must admit I did get writers block half way through this and had to leave it a couple of days but still I hope you enjoy it :)**

~~~ Sticky Glue ~~~

Each marauder received a weeks worth of detentions cleaning up the potions lab and polishing everything in the trophy room. Sirius was actually shocked at how little a punishment they had got since they made the whole school get up with a bang and glow for 12 hours through the night.

November passed through quickly, come the end of the month Remus disappeared again, but this time it was different for when he woke up, he saw Lily draping a cloak over him to cover his dignity. She then continued to levitate him onto a stretcher and give him a sedative potion which would cause him to fall asleep while his injuries healed. After finding out Remus was a werewolf she spent countless hours in the library looking up anything that could be of any help. A book of complicated potions told her of this potion which would not only numb the pain for 4 hours (which were the worst excluding the transformation itself) and cause Remus to fall into such a deep sleep he would be able to recover much quicker. Madame Pomfrey was hesitant at first for she had not heard of the potion, so Lily spoke to Slughorn to get his opinion on it. He agreed to help Lily – who had told him it was simply to help improve her potion ability – make the potion. It had taken the good part of three weeks to make and was only just ready in time. Remus and Madame Pomfrey had both agreed to give it a go considering Slughorn had told them it was safe and he had made a remedy should anything go wrong. After waking up Remus felt as good as anyone can be after every bone in your body is torn and reshaped, but by far the best he had ever felt after a transformation. This was partly due to Lily's amazing discovery, and partly to do with Lily herself, being here, wanting to help him, caring for him the way his parents could never manage to do. Lily had ran down to the hospital wing in-between all of her classes, at break and lunch and finally at the end of the school day when she heard that Remus was being released in time for dinner, and hours before he normally would have been. This made the red-head ecstatic and Remus couldn't help but smile with her. The pair walked together down to dinner, going separate ways when they reached the table but not with out a thank you from Remus.

The sky outside Hogwarts seemed to be getting increasingly darker increasingly earlier, but this only made the Marauders happier because it meant one thing – snow was on its way. The first flake fell on the morning of December 10th, also the first day third years were allowed into Hogsmead.

James ran down the stairs followed by Sirius excited by the snow when James stopped and saw Lily. He took a step forwards. _Here we go again _Sirius thought.

'Hey Evans' he called from across the common room.

'What do you want Potter?' she was really getting tired of him now.

'I was just wondering if you would like to go to Hogsmead with me?' James smiled a crooked smile which most girls seemed to crumble under, but not Lily.

'Get lost Potter, how many times do I have to say no for it to sink through that thick skull of yours?'

'I was only being polite Evans'

'Well don't arhhh' Lily screamed as she suddenly found herself flying two metres to her left only to collide with James who also was shocked to be flying involuntary across the room.

'What the hell?' Lily made to take a step forward away from James but found she was only dragging him along with her. 'What did you do?'

'I didn't do anything, wait are we stuck, like glued?' James looked at his waist glued to Lily's 'Sirius what did you do?'

'Simple sticking charm it will ware off in a few hours' he said casually leaning against the wall. Next to him Remus and Peter were trying to stifle their laughs.

James grinned. As annoying as this was, Lily now had to spend some time with him. He had been wishing for this for the last two and a half years. Granted he would rather Lily voluntarily want to spend time with him, but still, what was that muggle saying? Something about making lemons or giving lemonade or something like that. 'Looks like we are going to go on that date after all'.

'This is not a date; I do not like you or wish to spend time with you so you will ignore me as much as you can considering the circumstances' she gestured to their waists 'I will talk to my friends you will talk to yours, understand?' Lily asked frustrated as she and James were attempting to walk down to Hogsmead, surrounded by their friends who neither said anything or laughed though they did struggle with that last part. This was ridiculous, no way were they going to be at Hogsmead before midday at this rate.

'Yeah, yeah I understood it the first time you said it up in the common room, and outside the portrait hole, on the marble stair cases, as we handed our slips to filch and the twenty times you have said it since we left the grounds' James smirked at Lily who looked like she wanted to slap James. 'Okay' he sais sensing her mood 'I vote we go straight to the three broomsticks, sitting is going to be a lot easier than walking and we can spend some quality time together Evans and god forbid have a normal conversation'

Much to Lily's annoyance James through his arm over Lily's shoulder and picked up his pace causing her to stumble a bit. At quarter to one the group sat down at a table in the corner of the three broomsticks.

'Butterbeers all round?' Sirius said standing up. Everyone nodded and Remus got up to help him. Five minutes later they returned with seven bottles and handed the round.

'Neev what time did Alice say she'd meet us in here again?' Lily said looking at her watch.

'I think she said about half one for a quick drink before returning to her date with Frank' Nevaeh replied.

Alice had caught up with Frank after the Halloween party and had given him the potion apologising for Sirius' behaviour. Frank had just laughed saying he enjoyed the previous night. Since then the pair had become inseparable meeting when ever they could whilst not ignoring their friends.

An awkward silence fell over the crowd, everyone occasionally sipping from their bottle. Lily was fuming, that Black had done this to her. _What have I ever done to him _she thought. James was torn. Although he was glad to be spending time with her, this awkward atmosphere was painful. No one was talking and Lily seemed madder than ever. Everyone else just sat there staring at different parts of the wall or ceiling.

'How long will this last, Black?'

'Evans, calm down it shouldn't be too much longer now' Sirius said a smile playing around the edges of his lips.

'Well I don't want to sit here, I need a new quill, don't you Evanna?' Lily looked hopefully at her friend.

'Yeah, mine broke last night some stupid first year trod on it' Evanna looked frustrated because that meant that she couldn't finish her charms essay giving her a homework free weekend.

Lily tried to stand, forgetting temporarily about the charm 'Ergh Potter get up!'

James and Sirius burst into laughter at her frustration; even Remus had a smile on his face.

'And what, may I ask, is so funny?'

'Well now that would be telling'

'Don't mess with me Black, Potter will you please just get up' she almost screamed 'this is our first time in Hogsmead and I am not wasting it because of you four' She pointed at each marauder. At this all four boys burst into laughter.

'What's so funny now?' Lily was getting more and more wound up, causing the marauders to double over with laughter.

'Well for one thing the look on your face right now is priceless' this caused a fresh round of laughter 'and…se...se...secondly' Sirius had trouble talking through his laughter 'Hogsmead isn't that great I mean sure you can get away from school, drink, get supplies for pranks, but its not the magnificent place your making it sound like'

'Yeah and this isn't our first time in Hogsmead' James grinned, red-faced from laughing.

'What are you talking about? Ergh I don't even care now just get up will you!'

'Sure thing love' James smiled again and got up with Lily at his side.

'Don't call me that'.

And with that the group left the pub and headed down the road.

'Do you know I think I might go and find Rosie' James gave his best friend a _don't you dare_ kind of look, but Sirius ignored this smiled, and walked off.

'Shall we go to Honeydukes Neev?'

'Er yeah that's a good idea' Nevaeh grabbed Evanna's arm much to Lily's dislike and the pair walked off.

'Fancy another drink Pete'

'Sure' and the two boys returned to the Three Broomsticks.

'Look Lily' James smiled 'I'm sorry your day got ruined and…'

'No your not' Lily interrupted.

'and that this is not the ideal situation' he pointed to their joint hips 'but it could be worse'

'How could this get any worse?' her annoyance still showing strong.

'He could have used a permanent sticking charm'

'Merlin, what is it with you four. You all think you can strut around the castle…'

'We do not strut' James protested knowing full well he was lying

'Yes, you do. You think you can just hex whoever you want whenever you want, disrupt _every _lesson, mess up the castle and peoples lives without caring or even thinking about the consequences' The more Lily ranted the higher her voice rose. Many people surrounding them turned to look; no one had ever been so against the Marauders as Lily, not even the teachers.

James was shocked at her conclusion, sure it was true that they hexed a few people every now and then and pranked people which usually made a fair amount of mess or disruption. But they weren't that bad – they were just having fun.

'Argh lets just get this day over and done with' and she all but dragged James into the nearest shop. They spent the rest of the day in silence other than a comment here and there from James which Lily ignored. After they had been in a couple of shops Lily looked at her watch. It was half four. She had caught up briefly with her friends a while ago who said they had bumped into Alice who had asked if they could meet later than they had originally planned. After they had told Lily this they apologised and claimed they had to go into the shop Lily had just come out of.

Lily sighed she still had 15 minuets till she was meeting up with the others. James had stayed relatively quiet around her, but seemed to have bumped into every one of his friends from other years and houses and stopped to talk to them all, which added to Lily's annoyance even more.

'Let's head back to the Three Broomsticks' she said to James who was talking to a fifth year Gryffindor girl. _Unbelievable, he is glued to my side and he is still chatting up other girls. _'POTTER! COME ON' getting impatient now.

'Calm down Lilsie' he turned back to the girl 'Sorry, Leah, I've got to go'

Leah waved as she walked off back to her friends 'Come on Evans give me a break you have dragged me round Hogsmead all day'

'And whose fault is that then, not that you've cared you've stopped to talk to just about every girl we have passed'

'This is not my fault, and I'm sorry but the Gryffindor quidditch captain asked me that if I saw anyone on the team to tell them we have a last minute practice tomorrow morning'

'You may not have cast the spell but a marauder did and you're always saying you're in it together' she said ignoring his last sentence

'What? Look Evans it's just a laugh, lighten up'

'Everything is a laugh to you lot'

'That's because we are young and enjoying life rather than spending the whole time stressing out, or ruining other people's fun'

'It isn't fun when it is at someone else's expense'

'Come on, do you really like the Slytherins Evans, they are just a bunch of …'

'They're not all bad'

'I will never understand your obsession with seeing Snivelly as a good person, he is no different to the rest of them do you not remember him calling you a mudblood at the beginning of the year?'

'He didn't mean that, if you actually got to know him he isn't that bad, it's just when he is around his friends'

They entered the pub then and walked as effectively as they could, whilst still joint at the hip, to a table where Alice was sitting with Frank.

'Hey guys' Lily said as she tried to sit down.

'Hi Shorty, Frank' James nodded.

'Alice are you ok' Lily said for Alice as well as Frank had the most peculiar look on their faces. It was across between shock, confusion and astonishment.

'Lily, what's going on?' Alice said worried.

'What do you' she started 'Oh you mean Potter. Stupid Black cast a sticking charm, and now we are joint at the hip'

'And Lily has had the best day of her life, and has decided that I'm not the, what was it you always say again? Oh yeah I'm not the 'arrogant idiot' she always thought I was' James said cockily smiling at Lily.

'Shut up Potter, no I am not voluntarily here with him, you should have known that'

'Sorry Lils, I was just shocked I guess, ah look Neev and Evy are here. Hey guys' she called waving to her friends.

'Hi Alice, Frank' Nevaeh smiled 'Still stuck to Lily, James'

'Last time I checked' he laughed.

The two girls sat down just as Remus, Peter and Sirius who had his arm around Rosie's waist, walked through the door. They came over to the table, Sirius staying clear of Lily, who looked like she was ready to kill.

'Aw has it not worn of yet, that's a shame. I bet you can see Jaime is a lot better than you thought he was Evans'

'That's what I said Siri but apparently not' the group burst out laughing all but Lily.

The boys and Rosie dragged up chairs and joined the group before Sirius went off and got everyone a drink. They stayed talking for about half an hour, when they decided to head back to the castle as the sun had set whilst they were drinking.

As they were walking, very slowly, back to the castle Sirius suddenly stopped. 'I cant do this anymore' he laughed 'your face just looks to painful, I wouldn't want it to stay that way when you are so gorgeous' James shots him a look 'as our Jamie keeps informing us, here' he waved his wand and Lily suddenly tripped and fell on top of James who had also fallen to the floor.

'Why hello there' James says suggestively.

'Dream on Potter' Lily says as she stands up _wait I just stood up! On my own, no Potter _'BLACK you knew the counter spell for it this whole time, yet you let me be stuck to him all day' she huffed.

'Well yeah when you put it like that'. Sensing danger Sirius took a step back then started running as Lily chased him back to the castle. Their friends all burst into laughter again, Rosie and Frank included. When they reached the castle they found Lily standing at the steps leading up to the entrance hall with a smug look on her face.

'Where is Sirius?' Remus said looking around.

'Well Remus he is probably running up to Gryffindor tower to try and get rid of the pink streaks I put in his hair' she smiled.

_She looks so beautiful when she smiles _James thought to himself, as he laughed at Lily's revenge.

'Ouch Lils, you figured out Sirius' weak spot, he is very protective of his hair' At Remus' words, the whole group laughed again as the headed back to the tower.

As the three Marauders entered their dorm they found Sirius panicking in the bathroom.

James walked in and laughed at the sight he saw. Sirius had his wand pointing at his hair that now had purple streaks in it to match the pink.

'I know you like her Jamie, but I swear if she goes after my hair again, I may have to hex her'

'Siri calm down it will wear off in a few hours' James laughed as he repeated Sirius' words from that morning. 'Hey Remus Pete' he called 'come have a look at this, he has purple streaks too now'

The other two boys entered the bathroom and immediately were in fits of laughter.

'We need a camera' Remus muttered as he ran from the room only to return moments later to send a flash through out the room.

'That was not funny Remus, this is a serious matter'

'Well it isn't a James matter, or Peter or even Lily matter' Remus laughs 'so of course it's a Sirius matter' They really have overused that joke too much now, but it still seems so funny.

Sirius spent half the night unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the coloured streaks. Remus, James and Peter point blank refused to help him, too amused by his behaviour. In the end he gave up and went to bed.

The next day Lily and her friends were sitting at Gryffindor table eating breakfast when the sound of students eating and chatting seemed to dim and turn to muffled laughter.

Lily felt a tap on her back and she turned to see Sirius now with red, blue, yellow, green and purple streaks to match the pink she had put in his hair herself the previous night.

'Yes Black' she smiled.

'I'm sorry I ruined your day at Hogsmead yesterday by gluing you to James, will you please remove the coloured streaks in my hair' Sirius said looking at his shoes.

Lily turned to her friends 'Did I just hear that right? Almighty Black, one of the Marauders has just publically apologised for pranking in front of witnesses?' she said a bit louder than necessary.

'I don't know Lils, I think he may need to repeat it a bit louder and grovel a bit more' Nevaeh giggled.

'Well?' Lily said expectantly turning back to Sirius who knelt down on the floor.

'I'm really, really sorry I ruined your day at Hogsmead yesterday and I' he hesitated 'and I deserved this pay back but could you pretty please fix my hair because most girls like my hair the way it was so I don't want to ruin it for them because they should get the whole Sirius package' Behind him his friends were laughing so hard they had gone red and Remus was close to tears.

'There you go Black' she tapped her wand to his hair 'although you need to work on your grovelling for next time'

'Next time!' Sirius looked around at his friends worrying and unconsciously put his hand on his hair, but all this did was cause everyone in the near vicinity to laugh even more.

'Watch it Black' Lily smirked and returned to her conversation and breakfast.

'Come on Siri' and James and Peter dragged him over to where they normally sit before helping themselves to everything available to eat.

**Hope you enjoyed it**

**Please Review it means a lot**

**Phoebe xxx**


	11. Heartache and Discoveries

**PLEASE READ MY NOTE**

**Just to let you know I'm moving time forwards a couple of months in this chapter I just feel like it needs to go that way.**

**Also I know that my spelling/grammar isn't great, I've never really been any good at English so having just started my a-levels I dropped it as soon as physically possible :) I do apologise and will try to improve it other than that thank you everyone who has reviewed so far it means a lot to me **

**Enjoy :)**

~~~ Heartache and Discoveries~~~

Over the next 24 hours the majority of the school seemed to have heard about Sirius' little prank. Many congratulated him, some (mainly Slytherins) laughed at him because of his grovelling and few, well one, ignored him. To be honest Sirius was doing all he could to avoid Lily too, for his hairs sake which the rest of the Marauders found hilarious.

Sunday evening Lily and her friends were heading down to the Great Hall, but were stopped just outside the doors by a rather shrill voice.

'Aw if it isn't little Evansie, did you have fun on your date with Potter yesterday? Personally I don't know what he sees in you; with all that mud pumping through your veins' Bellatrix Black smirked as she walked down the marble steps trailed by Snape, and four other Slytherins, talking in an infantile voice.

'I don't know how many times I have to tell you not to talk to her like that Black' James said stepping through the doors.

'Well talk of the devil, and the devil shall appear, well I don't know about devil, blood traitor is more fitting don't you think?' she turned around to her group who all nodded and laughed in response.

'Ah I thought I heard the unbearable sound of a cat being dragged by its tail through a dragons nest'

'Look Potter your little blood traitor puppy has turned up to growl at me, roll over and die dear cousin'

'Pleasant as always I see' Sirius glared at the person he hated to call family.

'Leave it Bella, we don't want to cause a scene now do we?' a tall, blonde Slytherin seventh year girl called from the top of the steps.

'Don't be a killjoy, Cissy' Bellatrix said as her sister descended the stairs her hand in that of a blonde boy also of Slytherin by the name of Lucius Malfoy, who was sneering at the Gryffindors.

'He will get what's coming to him soon enough' Narcissa smirked as she took her sisters arm and pulled her towards the Great Hall. The three were followed by the laughing group of third years.

As soon as they were gone Lily marched straight up to James and said rather coldly 'I do not need you to defend me every time someone offends me, I can take care of my self' she then stormed off to dinner followed by her friends.

'Your welcome Evans' James waved after her.

'Ah mate she'll come round eventually'

'Remus, remember your all betting against it, the pact we made on the train' James reminded his friend laughing 'but its true my charms will break her defences sooner or later.

James continued to try and win Lily's heart over the next few months and Valentines Day was no exception. But before we get to that story we must look at the importance of one Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson that took place on the morning Friday the 13th of February. The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff third years drifted into the classroom and took their seat – most talking animatedly about the following day and plans and dates.

'Ok class settle down' Professor Evergreen said as she walked down the aisle between the desks. 'Today we shall be studying lycanthropy' Remus stiffened and Lily glanced back at her friend. The rest of the Marauders seemed not to have noticed anything. The professor continued 'can you please pull out your text books and turn to page 246, as there is no practical for this topic so please put your wands away. Potter, Black, that includes you two' the boys frowned and returned their wands to their bags like everyone else.

'Ok firstly can anyone tell me qualities of a werewolf? How can you recognise one? Any before or after affects of the transformation or the transformation itself, anyone?' Louise Wood a blonde Hufflepuff raised her hand 'Yes Miss Wood?'

'Lethargic behaviour for a few days before and after the full moon' she replied.

'Correct, but can anyone make Miss Wood's answer more specific' the Professor looked around 'Miss Evans? Can you?'

Lily stiffened she knew the answer but couldn't tell 'Er no sorry Professor'

'Shame Miss Evans I thought you would have known this' she shook her head. 'The werewolf, whilst in human form would indeed seem to be lethargic days before the transformation, but subtle differences between a truly tired person and a werewolf can distinguish the two. Firstly despite the tired appearance, physically they will be at their peak. They will be able to run faster, be stronger and are more alert. Although their temper will be incredibly short and may turn on their friends and family…'

Remus couldn't concentrate, he was too nervous someone would recognise what Professor Evergreen was saying and match it up to his own behaviour and the fact that he disappears once a month. Lily figured it out so why wouldn't someone else. _No _he thought _Lily is just really smart and observant and her suspicions were confirmed when she saw wolf me, but this might give James, Sirius and Peter an idea, even if they don't think anything of it the idea will still be there in their mind. I should just leave now before anyone else finds out. Sirius has the biggest mouth in the castle everyone would find out with in hours if he figured it out. _But Remus was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of his name.

'Mr Lupin?'

'What? Oh sorry Professor what did you say?' He looked up to see Evergreen standing right in front of his desk.

'Mr Lupin I expect my pupils to pay attention in class! Now can you tell me anything about the transformation of a werewolf?'

'Er' Sure he knew the answer but Remus didn't know how to give it without giving the whole game away.

'It's involuntary' Lily called from across the class. The professor turned around at her voice 'The person has no control, they become werewolves through no fault of their own' Lily smiled at Remus. Her way of reassuring him and saving him from answering was a great comfort.

'Thank you Miss Evans. Mr Lupin, do pay attention.' She walked back to the front of the class 'That is true, werewolves are, men or women, who have been bitten by another werewolf, as you all know, and they can not control the transformation. As Miss Evans said they are forced into the transformation by the nature of their, lets say 'condition''

Remus looked at his friends. They were uncharacteristically paying close attention to what Professor Evergreen was saying, which only worried him further. That particular lesson seem to continue for a life time and when the bell rang Remus packed his things and quickly left the classroom.

'Remus! Wait up!' Lily called after him. Reluctantly, he turned around to face her. 'Are you okay? I know that lesson was probably tough on you'

'Yeah Lils I'm fine, more worried about it putting ideas into my friends' minds'

'You will have to tell them eventually Remus' she said softly, feeling sorrow for her friend.

'Yeah, it's just difficult' Remus shrugged and walked off sighing. Lily hated seeing Remus like this but knew there was nothing she could do, so she returned to her friends and headed off for lunch.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

As Lily woke on Saturday morning she became aware that her bed felt rather crowed. Confused, she looked around to see her whole bed was overflowing with roses, lilies and boxes of Honeyduke's finest chocolate.

'Hey Lils, looks like Potter gave you a good haul this year' Evanna said as she sat on the end of Lily's bed in her dressing gown and slippers, helping herself to a chocolate from one of the many boxes. 'Look Alice there is enough chocolate to last till the end of the term, this year'

'Ooo lets have one' Nevaeh called as she left the bathroom.

'Knock yourself out Neev' Lily said sitting herself up and throwing a box to her friend who caught it and proceeded to open it. 'You too Alice' and she threw another box across the room 'I guess you can have that box considering you just helped yourself' she laughed and climbed out of bed causing most of the gifts to fall to the floor. A little card fell to the floor too; Evanna bent down to pick it up. Written in loopy but messy handwriting was the message

_Dear Lily,_

_Happy Valentines _

_James_

_PS. Do you reckon you could say yes this time?_

_If so meet me in the common room at ten. ❤_

'Aw looks like Lily has a date today' Evanna giggled.

'What?' a confused Lily grabbed the note off of her friend and quickly read it. She laughed 'when is he going to give up'. She quickly grabbed her wand and one on the lilies James had put on her bed, quickly put on her dressing gown and walked out of their dorm followed by her friends all wondering what she was up to.

They stopped at the bottom of the boys stairways, where Lily lifted her wand, charmed the flower, and then levitate it up to the third year boy's dorm.

'What are you doing?' Alice said confused.

'One minute and I'll explain' Lily smirked.

Meanwhile up in the boy's dorm, each marauder was still in bed and not planning on getting out for a while. James sat up in his bed, put his glasses on and looked at his watch – it was half nine.

'Ah crap, I need to get up'

'I wouldn't rush James; chances are Lily will say no'

'Ye of little faith Siri, ye of little faith' James replied and Sirius scoffed.

'Ergh what the hell is that buzzing' James heard in the direction of Peter's bed.

'Merlin knows, sounds like it's from the hall' James walked over and opened the door to their dorm.

Immediately after the door was opened lily flew into their dorm whirled around, then stopped in front of James – who knew what was coming. _Oh Merlin, I'm not going to live this down _he thought. The buzzing suddenly increased, it became louder and louder until it exploded in front of his eyes to spell out two letters. N O. The letters then sank to the floor.

'Hate to say it mate but…'

'Sirius if you say I told you so I will hex you, I swear on Merlin's life' James warned, but Sirius smirked.

'I TOLD YOU SO' he announced to the room 'ARRGGH' he ducked as James threw a hex in his direction. 'James I'm serious, don't you dare' he ran as James threw another hex his way.

'Good to know that you know your name Sirius' Peter laughed as Remus yet again used their little joke. They really needed to come up with something new but classics (despite being overused) were truly funnier.

'Take it back' James said sternly wand pointed at his friend.

'NEVERRR' Sirius continued to run around the dorm dodging James' aims.

Peter looked at Remus who nodded. The pair suddenly jumped out of their beds, run across the room, straight at their friend and tackled him to the ground.

'NOOO' Sirius shouted as he was knocked to the floor.

'James! Quickly while he is down' Peter laughed as he pinned one of Sirius' arms to the floor. James then proceeded to hit Sirius with a jelly-legs jinx.

'You can let him up now' James chuckled. Remus and Peter let him go, and backed off. Sirius, who had been struggling so much, hadn't heard James cast the spell. He smirked at James; put his hand on the bed nearby, to help pull himself up.

'See James I knew you wouldn't jinx whoa' Sirius cried out as his legs gave way beneath him and he fell to the floor again. 'James Potter, you git, you reverse this now'. He tried to chase James round the room but after every step he took, he fell to the floor time and time again. All effect this was causing was his dorm mates to fall about laughing. They stayed this way for the next twenty minutes when Sirius gave up and started sulking, which only made them laugh longer. James finally reversed the jinx after making Sirius repeat the grovelling he had done for Lily all those months ago (and many times since to his friends who thought this was the best payback from him).

'So what you lot up to today?' Lily smiled sitting on her bed after she told her friends how she had answered James' question.

'Well Frank has planned a little picnic just for the two of us. I'm meeting him down in the entrance hall in an hour and a half' Alice beamed suddenly falling into a trance as she day-dreamed about her date as she danced around the room with excitement.

'Well my day is going to be boring considering I don't have a date' Nevaeh frowned as she pulled on a pair of skinny muggle jeans.

'I'll join you there, although no doubt Potter will ask me out again' Lily giggled thinking of the exploding lily 'I wonder how long it will take him to get the message – I'm not interested'

'At least you have a guy after you; it's quite depressing not even having someone interested'

'Neev I bet half the boys in the school are interested but are too damn scared to ask you, intimidated by your dazzling looks' Alice said dramatically causing all four girls to double over laughing.

'Yeah something like that Ali. Wait, I've got an idea why don't we have a girl's night tonight, you know, pillow fights, makeovers etc a guy free night just enjoy ourselves?' Nevaeh said suddenly excited.

'Yeah that sounds good to me' Lily smiled.

'I'm in' Alice called 'just wait till I get back from my date'

'Me to, I'm in' Evanna smiled secretly thinking of how oblivious her friends can be sometimes.

'Well that's settled. I'll get us some food and Butterbeers and something stronger if I can' Nevaeh smiled mischievously.

So Alice got ready for her date and went off to meet Frank in the entrance hall. The three remaining girls decided to take a walk around the grounds wrapping up warm due to the snow. They were walking around the lake when they heard a voice call from behind them.

'Hey Evans'

'What does he want now?' Lily suddenly became very frustrated 'what do you want Potter?' she repeated calling over her shoulder.

'Did you get my gift?' he smiled.

'Yeah I did are you trying to make me fat because no one person could eat all that chocolate to them selves. I also got your note, I take it you got my reply' Lily retorted.

'Evans fat or think or drop dead gorgeous like you are now, you will always be beautiful to me. And that was a bit of a harsh reply, don't you think'

'I don't think so' the three girls giggled.

'Now come on Lily, give the guy a break' Remus chuckled.

Lily's frustration lessoned as she saw Remus. 'Just a bit of fun Remus, not got a date today?'

'Na not me, but its ok I have these two gits to keep me company' he gestured to James and Peter 'not on a date yourself?'

'Nope, having a girl day and I would appreciate it if that was not ruined' she glared at Potter.

'Now I do like the sound of that' he smiled, then muttered to himself, eyes glowing 'girl day'

'Meaning your not invited Potter'

James laughed; ignoring Lily's words he said 'Well seeing as there are three of us and three of you, how about we make this a triple date? Huh?' He smiled that cocky smile Lily wanted to curse into oblivion.

'Dream on Potter' Lily said the same time Nevaeh said 'Three of you? Where's Sirius?'

'On a date with a Ravenclaw, so probably in a broom closet somewhere' Remus smirked; the three girls all rolled their eyes.

'We could go find a broom closet somewhere if you like, Evans? Somewhere with a bit more privacy' James stepped closer to Lily, but the latter was quick and before James could say another word he found his tongue had been glued to the top of his mouth.

'What was that again? I didn't quite hear you' she laughed and turned to walk away. A cold breeze encircled the group and everyone shivered.

'You okay Evanna you look cold' Remus said concerned.

'Yeah I'm fine I just forgot my scarf, really wish I hadn't now' she frowned.

'Here have mine; I don't really feel the cold'

'No it's alright you keep it, you'll freeze'

'I'll tell you what, we will take it in turns, your go now' Remus smiled as he undid his scarf and wrapped it around Evanna's neck the pair then walked off in conversation.

'Well, so much for girl's day' Nevaeh laughed 'come on Lils' she put her arm round Lily's and the pair walked off after Remus and Evanna. James, trailed by Peter, soon caught up with the girls.

'Come on Evans, let him go it's Valentines Day, have a heart' Peter asked hopefully.

'Seeing as you asked with out insulting me I will let him go on one condition' James raised his eyebrows and Lily continued 'go away' she said simply.

James nodded and Lily reversed the spell 'Bye Potter, Pettigrew'

'Bye guys' Nevaeh waved and the girls walked off to catch up with Evanna.

'Come on Remus, were going back inside, I'm suddenly hungry' Remus bid goodbye to the girls and continued off towards the castle with his friends, leaving his scarf with Evanna.

'How do you do that?'

'Do what?' Remus asked confused at James' question.

'Talk to Lily with out her jumping down your throat'

'Yeah, I've wondered that too' Peter added.

'Have you ever spoken to her without hitting on her James?' Remus asked.

'Yeah, loads of…' he hesitated 'I mean…'

'You mean no' Peter laughed and Remus joined in.

'Oi you're supposed to be on my side'

'We are mate, we are' Remus patted his friend on the back as they entered the Entrance Hall and headed for the kitchens.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Later that evening Lily and Nevaeh were sitting in the common room by the fire, doing homework. Lily was writing a Runes essay and Nevaeh a care of magical creatures essay. They were waiting for Alice to return from her date with Frank, when Lily stood up saying she needed to pop down to the library to look up something for her essay.

'You want to come?' she asked.

'No, I think I'll stay here in case Evanna shows up' Nevaeh said looking at her watch. It was six forty and Evanna had disappeared, saying she was meeting a friend from Hufflepuff, two hours ago when they were returning to Gryffindor common room.

'Yeah I wonder where she is, hmm oh well hopefully she be back soon. I won't be long' she waved and exited through the portrait hole.

As Lily walked through the halls of the castle she picked up her pace – she only had twenty minutes before the curfew. As she walked her mind wandered when she heard loud voices coming from a nearby classroom.

A girl emerged, fiddling with her robes; she looked at Lily, huffed and stormed off down the corridor. Lily smiled trying not to laugh when a second figure emerged from the room.

'Maddie, wait I didn't mean it' the boy then blushed as he saw Lily 'er hi Evans what you doing out'

'I could ask you the same thing Black. What did you say to that Ravenclaw?' she tried to suppress a giggle.

'Er nothing, I'll er see you around' a deflated looking Sirius adjusted his robe and skulked back to Gryffindor common room.

Lily passed many more classrooms on her way containing noises from within. She saw a seventh and sixth year Slytherins in one classroom doing inappropriate things in a school, a fourth year Hufflepuff with a fifth year Ravenclaw getting acquainted, she even saw the Head Boy and Girl in one. But a few corridors away from the library, Lily again heard a noise coming from a nearby classroom. _These classrooms really are popular on Valentines Day, _she thought her curiosity got the better of her again and as she walked past she glanced into the room to see Potter wrapped around a third year Ravenclaw called Mia Montgomery. _Yeah, because you really wanted to spend the day with me! _

The red-head continued down to the library checked out the book she needed for her Runes essay and headed back to the common room. She looked at her watch – five past. _Shoot I need to hurry up. _Again she picked up her pace, praying she wouldn't get caught. After making a detour, after hearing Peeves floating around bad mouthing a teacher, she heard more noises from a nearby classroom. _For the love of Merlin, how many more people can I come across?_ But this time it was different, the noises were voices, loud voices. This Valentines Day was going to end in tears for someone.

As she became closer she heard what was being said.

'So what are you saying? You don't trust me?' a girl cried.

'No of course I trust you. It's just…' a boy trailed off lost for words.

'It's just what'

'It's complicated, it's too big for me to share, but of course I trust you, don't ever think that'

'We have been together for almost a year now and you can't even tell me why you keep disappearing every now and then.' Lily's ears pricked up. _This boy can't be? Can it?_ 'You can't tell me I'm imagining it, or that you expected me to go along with it. How can you not see why I think you don't trust me or that you have found someone else, when you're acting like this?'

'Look it's not like that, my friends don't even know, it's just a family issue I'm not allowed to share'

'Well then maybe we should just stop this, at least until you can decide that you can trust me and if you can't well then its over' Despite not being able to see, Lily could tell tears were streaming down the girls face.

'Evy wait, don't doo this' _Evy? No! This can't be!_

'It's too late Remus, just make your decision'

Her suspicions were confirmed as Evanna walked from the room and stormed off down the corridor before Lily could call after her friend. Instead she turned and entered the classroom to find Remus sitting at a desk, head in his hands. She walked in silently, sat down next to him and put her arm around him. Remus jumped slightly at the touch unaware of any company but relaxed when he saw who it was.

'I take it you heard, well what ever that was?'

'Remus, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I only heard the last bit I promise'

'S'kay Lily, I'd rather you than James, Siri or Pete'

'Not to sound pushy or nosey but the secret you were keeping from Evanna, was it, you know your _fury little problem_' She laughed at the little code name the two of them had come up with a couple of months ago.

'Yeah it was. I can't tell her Lils, I mean I want to but I can't because what if this doesn't last and she spills about me, that's even if she sticks around. I can't stand there and watch her run away repulsed at what I am, because that is what will happen'

'First thing Remus we have been through this, you are a good person. And secondly I understand what you are saying but Evanna is one of the kindest people – wizards and muggles alike – that I have ever met and you hurt her back there. I know you didn't mean it, but if you are not going to tell her, then don't string her along'

'I know Lily, I don't want to hurt her, but I can't risk it. She deserves better anyway'

Lily pulled her friend into a hug, a friendly hug that meant comfort – just what Remus needed.

'Come on we better get back to the common room before Filch finds us' The pair make their way back to the common room where Remus says goodnight and turns in early. Lily looks around the common room where she spots her and Nevaeh's essays and quill spilled over a table abandoned by their owners. She guessed Evanna had come back and gone straight upstairs, so she gathered up their things and climbed the stairs to her dorm.

As she entered her dorm the scene she saw was as expected. Evanna was curled up on her bed crying. Nevaeh was sitting on the end of the former's bed and Alice stood in the middle of the room, unsure what to do. When she saw Lily enter she approached her.

'We don't know what's wrong. She won't talk to us' Alice said sorrow in her eyes at the sight of her friend hurt. Nevaeh looked up and the sound and smiled at Lily.

'Do you think the pair of you could give us a minute I think I might be able to help' Nevaeh and Alice both looked confused but nodded and returned to the common room.

Lily set the essays down and walked over to Evanna's bed. 'Come here Evy'. The girl sat up for a second so Lily could sit and then rested her head in her lap. 'Just let it all out'

'No it's ok you don't know the story'

'Evy, I'm sure I know the basics. Remus hurt you' she stated.

Evanna looked up 'How did you know?'

'I heard you two arguing earlier, don't worry I wasn't eavesdropping, I was just returning from the library'

'Yes he hurt me. But I don't understand why? We have been going out for a while now and we have never had any problems, well except that time last Halloween when I thought he was seeing you, and I thought maybe he was seeing you again, that that's where he was going. But said it was a family thing. I don't know what to say. I just want him to trust me'

'Seeing me?'

'Yeah you two were missing for like 24 hours, rumours started to fly and I suppose I just got jealous. It was stupid really and I don't know what made me think you two were sneaking around still.'

'Evy listen to me, Remus and I have never been together and never will be. We are just really good friends. And besides as much as I hate to say it, Remus would never go there because of Potter'

'Potter?' Evanna said confused.

'Yeah Potter. His obsession with me, remember?' she laughed 'Not that I want there to be anything and Potter would not get in my way if I did want Remus that but…' sensing this wasn't helping she backtracked 'oh sorry got a bit sidetracked there. Remus does have a family secret but that fact that he didn't tell you doesn't mean he doesn't trust you. I spoke to him just now and he really likes you, I can tell, but don't push him on this because you'll only drive him away'

Evanna sat up and looked at Lily in disbelief 'you know don't you? You know his secret. Why does he trust you and not me? I mean you two are only friends' she started to back away from Lily.

'Evanna don't be absurd. I do not know his secret; if I did I would be telling him to share it with you too. How can you even think that?' Lily knew that lying to her friend was wrong but she also knew the truth would hurt much more.

'Yeah, sorry, I suppose your right' Evanna smiled. 'Don't tell the others they will think I'm just being stupid.'

'I'm sure they would understand, but of course I wont tell anyone' The two girls hugged and Lily walked over to the door 'You okay now?' she asked and when Evanna nodded in reply she opened the dorm door 'You two can come in now' she started the added in a lower voice 'just don't mention anything, okay?' she smiled at her friends.

'You sure?'

'Yeah Neev she just needs to get some sleep'

'No, I'm fine' Evanna appeared behind Lily 'its girls night remember, any way we have enough chocolate to make me feel better'

'Help yourself' Lily smiled and the four girls spent the majority of the night talking about anything and everything and devouring the many boxes of chocolates whilst finishing the bottle of Fire Whiskey Nevaeh had got her brother (who was a seventh year) to get her.

Although Evanna did feel better after a talk with her friend, if Remus knew in advance the conversation he was about to have with his own friends, his mood would have been even worse.

After saying goodbye to Lily he slowly made his way up to his dorm intending to go straight to bed. As he approached his dorm he heard his friends talking, well arguing rather loudly. _So much for going to bed, what are they arguing about now?_

'We have to say something?' he heard James say.

'But what if we are wrong? You don't want to offend him do you?' Peter said a little calmer than James.

'Only one way to be sure' Sirius said.

Confused Remus pushed the door open to find the room to fall into complete silence. All three boys were staring at him. He slowly made his way to his bed and pulled off his robe. They continued to stare at him.

'What's going on?'

'Er nothing we just er wanted to er go to sleep' Peter mumbled.

'Bit early for you three isn't it?'

'Yeah Remus, but you know we are just all really tired?' James said though it sounded more like a question than an explanation.

'Are you a werewolf?' Sirius suddenly blurted out.

'SIRIUS' James and Peter screamed together, but Remus was frozen, he knew this day was coming but why was he so surprised, he should have prepared himself.

'Look mate what Sirius was trying to say in a _sensitive way_' James glared at Sirius 'is that the reason you disappear every month. It's just that what Evergreen was saying today, well some of it seemed to sound familiar'

'Not that we care either way, your still a Marauder and we stick together' Sirius said honourably.

'But are you?' Peter muttered.

'I…er…I…' Remus ran for the bathroom and locked himself in.

'REMUS' all three boys called, banging on the door 'Remus let us in, we told you we don't care.' James added.

_Damn it _Remus thought _I really like it hear I don't want to leave. _

'Mate, just unlock the door' Peter called.

Slowly Remus unlocked the door and returned to the dorm to sit on his bed. James, Sirius and Peter all quickly climbed onto his bed too.

'Yes, I am a werewolf; I have been since I was five. Just give me a couple of days to pack my stuff and talk to Dumbledore and I will be gone'

His friends all looked at each other confused 'Go? Go where?'

'Home, I won't stay at Hogwarts I know I disgust you and completely understand if you don't want to talk to me ever again'

'Remmy, I think you have the wrong idea. I think its pretty cool you're a werewolf. We are your friends. Like Siri said us Marauders have to stick together' James smiled and put his arm around Remus' neck and ruffled his hair.

'Just don't think you're getting special treatment' Sirius joked.

'You honestly don't mind?' Remus said bewildered.

'Course not' Peter said punching Remus on the arm in a friendly manor.

'So does anybody else know?' James said curiosity dripping off his tongue.

'All the teachers do, so they know when I miss lessons that if it's around the full moon, I'm not bunking, Dumbledore obviously' Remus knew Lily wouldn't want James knowing she knew about were-Remus so he left her out.

'So where do you go to, you know, transform?' Sirius seemed excited.

Remus was reluctant to say at first but the idea that they we accepting who he was just made him feel joyous. 'You know the whomping willow?' the others nodded 'there is a hidden passage underneath the roots that leads to the shrieking shack in Hogsmead. It's not great but it means no one will be near me, near enough to be in danger of me'

'Wait a minute whomping willow? Last Halloween when you and Lily got attacked, is that where you were going? Does Lily know?'

'Yes James last Halloween was a full moon, I didn't get hit by the tree but Lily kept following me so I stunned her' he lied smoothly 'she thinks I got hit by the tree but really it was my transformation'

'Ouch you looked like death warmed up the next day' Sirius said cringing at the memory. Remus chuckled.

'Does it hurt?' Peter asked.

'Extremely so, pretty much everything Evergreen said today was true although she wouldn't know the extent of the pain unless she was actually a werewolf, which I can assure you she is not' he added at the looks on his friends faces.

The four boys continued to talk about were-Remus until the early hours when they all went to sleep; Remus – despite his argument with Evanna – fell asleep with a smile on his face.

**YAY! Longest chapter yet hope you all enjoyed it**

**It was a bit of a busy chapter a lot went on but I thought seeing as I have half term and the time I might as well this took up fourteen pages on word ha-ha**

**Please Review**

**Phoebe xx**


	12. Research

**Ok just a quick note school is getting pretty busy an I almost didn't get this up **

**At the moment I'm updating about 4,000 words a week would you rather me carry on like that or have longer chapters every two weeks? Its your choice :) please comment or inbox me your preference**

**Thank you to everyone who has review/followed/favourited my story so far**

**Enjoy :)**

~~~ Research ~~~

Monday morning saw the four marauders laughing at the breakfast table. Remus' happiness had worn off a little the previous day when he had come down the common room and saw Evanna sitting across the room with Lily, Nevaeh and Alice. For what seemed like forever to Remus he held eye contact with her, but she was the one to look away first. Remus saw Lily throw him a sympathetic look but he just shrugged and continued out the portrait hole behind his friends. They spent the day running round the grounds throwing snowballs at each other and whoever was misfortunate to pass by, including a first year Ravenclaw who Sirius hit in the face. The girl immediately started crying and with a stern look from Remus, Sirius ran over to apologise. The day passed quickly and they returned to the common room to finish of any homework they had left and went to bed. Apart from the whole Evanna thing Remus was feeling pretty good. He felt like a whole weight was lifted off his shoulder now that his friends, not only _knew _but _accepted _his biggest secret – even if they did scold him for not telling them.

'Take this James' Sirius said pulling the spoon in his hand back and launching a bit of fried egg at James.

'Oi Sirius' James replied immediately loading his own spoon with a bit of sausage which hit Sirius square between the eyes. Sirius dramatically leaped off the bench like he had been shot and fell to the ground. The three boys looked at him a burst out laughing.

'Oit get up' Remus said flicking some baked beans at Sirius who moaned.

Peter burst out laughing again at his response 'What are you laughing at?' Sirius smirked and Peter's face fell as Sirius got up and grabbed some bacon and threw it at the small boy. 'Didn't think you would get away with out getting hit did you?'

'Foooood Fiiight' James yelled and the four boys started throwing their breakfast at each other – anything they could reach – much to the amusements of the other students.

'Oi James'

'Take that Remus'

'Incoming'

'HAHA'

'Oww'

'SIRIUS'

'Ha Peter'

'JAMES OH YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET THAT'

'EWWW'

Sirius turned to find that he had thrown a piece of bacon – aimed at Remus – that had landed in Nevaeh's hair. Her friends were laughing at the expression on her face. Sirius walked over to where the girls were sitting.

'BLACK GET THIS BACON OUT OF MY HAIR NOW' she screamed.

'Sorry babe' he smiled back, picked up the bacon and put it in his mouth 'Delicious'

'Gross' Alice commented as Sirius returned to the food fight.

'Ew that went in my mouth'

'Really? Pumpkin juice?'

'Damn I missed'

'RIGHT ON TARGET'

'Sirius you idiot'

'POTTER, BLACK, LUPIN, PETIGREW WILL YOU STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!'

James, Remus and Peter all immediately dropped what they were holding and turned grinning at Professor McGonagall 'Morning Professor. Would you like some bacon?' James laughed pointing to a bit of bacon sitting in his pumpkin juice. But Sirius had not stopped and at that moment a piece of scrambled egg flew through the air and landed on McGonagall's forehead where it stayed for a second before it fell to the floor. Sirius realising what he had done immediately dropped his spoon.

'MY OFFICE! NOW! ALL OF YOU!'

The whole hall was silent as the four boys marched out of the room and up to McGonagall's office. Everyone was trying to stifle their laughs.

'IF I SEE ANYONE ELSE ATTEMPTING TO THROW FOOD, DRINK OR ANYTHING ELSE FOR THAT MATTER YOUR HOUSE WILL LOOSE POINTS AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE TWO WEEKS DETENTIONS' she called before exiting.

Ten minutes later they stood in McGonagall's office waiting for their punishment. James' hair had bits of egg stuck in it. His uniform was covered in beans and a bit of bacon was sticking out of his trouser pocket. Sirius was in a similar state to James but his hair seemed to accommodate – Merlin knows how – a whole round of toast. His shirt had turned orange due to the pumpkin juice James had thrown at him. Remus had a bean running down the side of his face that he didn't dare wipe away due to the Professor's glare at them. Peter was the cleanest of the boys but even he would need a shower and hair wash to get rid of all the breakfast on him.

'What on Earth made you think that a food fight was acceptable at the breakfast table?' she asked in outrage and disbelief. 'Why must you four always be the messiest in the school?'

'Sorry Professor' they all said in unison with a regretful look on their face they had mastered for moments like this over the last three years.

'Each of you shall receive two weeks of detention and you shall clean up the mess in the Great Hall _manually_' she added looking at James and Sirius 'see the house elves for the cleaning equipment. Obviously you have a lesson now and cannot be late, if you are then that is down to your teacher what punishment you get, but you can clean up the Hall at break time. Now the three of you can go up to your dorms wash off and get changed'

'But Professor we only have twenty minutes' James protested.

'You better hurry up then' the boys turned to leave 'Not you Mr Black' Sirius stopped in his tracks and his face fell again. He had been hoping McGonagall would have forgotten about that piece of scrambled egg.

The boys returned to their dorms and ran around like maniacs trying to get ready on time. There were only two showers between them so they decided Peter should go in first, he was definitely the slowest. Remus and James were both showered and were getting dressed by the time Peter exited the bathroom. As James did his tie up Sirius stalked through the door.

'Stupid McGonagall has given me an extra week'

'Mate you did egg her'

'I didn't mean to James, I just missed you, that's who I was aiming for and you soddin' moved out of the way'

'It was funny though, McGonagall's face I mean'

'Yeah Pete it was'

'Come on you lot Defence starts in a minute' Remus said looking at his watch.

'See you Siri' Peter said as the boys exited the room.

'Cant I just skip this lesson?' Remus moaned as they ran to the Defence classroom.

'Remus Lupin. Did I just hear right? Remus Lupin _wants_ to skip class' James looked at his friend in disbelief but then realisation hit him it was the subject they were studying. 'Oh' he finished lamely.

'You lot figured it out after last lesson, what if someone else does?'

'I wouldn't worry, the only person who pays 100% of their attention to Evergreen is Evans and I'm sure she wouldn't figure it out, I mean she hardly knows you' Peter said as they turned the final corner onto the Defence corridor.

_Actually she does know me pretty well and she figured this all out ages ago, before you lot did_ Remus thought but the idea that no one else paid close enough attention comforted him. They entered the classroom and quickly sat down and pulled out their quills and parchment.

'And why am I not surprised to see you three late?' Professor Evergreen said 'Where is Mr Black?'

'Er he is on his way; he just needed to clean off a bit'

'Yes Mr Potter I caught your little food fight this morning' Evergreen actually smiled a little and the three boys relaxed a bit.

They continued there study of werewolves and Sirius joined the class twenty minutes later. They learned about the appearance of the werewolf in wolf form and how it differs from the form of an animagus. James, Sirius and Peter paid close attention to Evergreen for anything that may be of use to help Remus during his transformation or the days leading up to or after it. Nothing of any particular use came up.

The day continued to drag by and come the evening something neither student nor teacher thought they would ever see happened. All FOUR marauders were sitting in the Library each with a head in a book. It was normal to see Remus in there and occasionally Peter but Sirius and James had been unaware of the existence of the Library until the end of second year.

Remus was looking up a spell for his charms essay he was writing but the others where all researching werewolves. Sirius was skimming through a book called _Creatures of the Moon _by _Malinda Harrington_. James a book called _100 Different Dark Beings and Everything You Need to Know About Them _by _Alfinus Lodge_. The title was a bit dumb but the book was seven inches thick and contained a whole chapter on werewolves. Peter was reading _Werewolves: The Truth _by an ancient wizard called _Briontus Beddle. _The group were sitting over the back of the Library in the corner hiding from sight partly to keep the subject of their books hidden and protect (in James and Sirius' case) their reputations.

'Wait look at this _Although a when bitten by a werewolf in wolf form a human is automatically cursed by the same ties that bind the former to the moon'_

'Sirius I already know that, I'm living proof of that'

'Shhh Remus keep listening' Sirius shhhed him and continued to read from the dusty old book '_a human is automatically cursed by the same ties that bind the former to the moon; the werewolf bite appears to be ineffective on those of the animal form. The bite in question is merely that – a bite. Most animals do not stand a chance once attacked but …_' he trailed off 'don't you see' he looked around to his friends who all looked confused.

'The wolf bite does not affect animals' Sirius repeated.

'So if we can't help Remus in human form, we can in animal form' James said in disbelief and realisation.

'Exactly!' Sirius said slamming his hands down on the desk, excitedly.

'So we become an animagus?' Peter said still confused.

'No! Absolutely not'

'Why not Remmy?'

'Because Sirius, you said it yourself '_Most animals do not stand a chance once attacked'_' Remus repeated the words of the book.

'But they don't have human minds like we will'

'James that's really tough magic and your not the best at transfiguration. Remember your candlestick that grew legs and ran out of the classroom'

'I meant to do that Peter' James said defensively.

'Look Remus, like it or not, we are going to help you in one way or another'

Remus dropped the subject knowing how stubborn Sirius was.

Over the next two weeks they continued to search the Library for anything on becoming and animagus. Nothing. They found nothing more than the laws on registering.

Being in a particular bad mood Sirius walked down to the Charms classroom one Thursday morning only to bump into a first year Slytherin, who quite rudely told Sirius to (in polite terms) 'go away'. Sirius took a few steps and waited for the boy to distance himself from the third years. He drew his wand from his pocket and suddenly the boy was hanging in the air by his feet. James had heard a Slytherin call _levicorpus _a few days ago and after seeing the result he had told his friends. He and Sirius had been itching to try it out and the perfect opportunity had arisen for the latter.

'Don't talk to a Marauder that way' he called and laughed as the boy fell back to the ground.

'Mr Black, do you think that is acceptable behaviour?' Flitwick called 'see me in my office after class'

'No Professor Flitwick, I think I'll handle this case if you don't mind?' the elderly voice of Dumbledore sounded over the bustle of the students. Everyone was immediately quiet. Sirius swore in his head.

'Of course Professor' Flitwick said 'everyone get into the classroom'. They started reluctantly filing into the charms class followed by their Professor the door slammed loudly shut behind them.

'Shall we?' Dumbledore gestured forwards and smiled which confused Sirius.

Once up in his office, Dumbledore sat down in his tall chair behind his desk and Sirius perched on the edge of the chair the other side.

'Now Mr Black' the old man started 'I know the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor remains strong especially within your own heart, but please restrain from hexing them in front of teachers, you will only get into trouble'

'But? Sir?' Sirius asked confused.

Dumbledore chuckled 'Of course you shall be serving a detention with Hagrid this evening for your actions but I cannot even attempt to control or reduce the level of rivalry that has runs through the veins of this castle since it was created'

'Sorry, Sir' he apologised 'may I go now?'

'Just one last thing' Dumbledore slowly got up and walked over to a nearby book shelf 'I do believe you may find this an interesting read if you get any spare time Mr Black' he held it out to Sirius.

'Er certainly Sir' he stared at the book a while longer then took it and put it in his bag. It weighed a ton and must have been a couple of centuries old.

'Goodbye Mr Black, and keep it as long as necessary' he waved as Sirius exited.

Confused, Sirius made his way to Charms. On closer inspection later that evening the book was named Mutare Corporis et Mens although none of them knew what that meant. The book was dumped in the bottom on Sirius' trunk and quickly forgotten about until Dumbledore made a comment a week later outside the Great Hall.

'Ah Mr Black just the person I was hoping to bump into'

'I didn't do it' Sirius said quickly which made James snicker.

'You are not in trouble dear, I just wanted to say I hope you gave that book I leant you a closer look. I find it can transfigure the mind when the right chapter catches your interest'

'Wait transfigure' James started 'Sir the title does that mean?'

'Indeed Mr Potter' the professor winked and walked inside and up to the staff table.

'Don't you understand?' James looked around at his friends.

'Understand what?' Remus said at the same time as Peter.

'Transfigure!' Sirius said catching on.

'We need to get back to the dorm' James said suddenly bolting down the corridor towards Gryffindor common room closely followed by Sirius.

Remus rolled his eyes and followed.

'But, what about dinner?' Peter said to thin air and then followed his friends. As Peter entered his dorm he found James and Sirius on the floor looking opening the book Remus leaning over their heads. Peter joined them.

'_Mutare Corporis et Mens_' James read the first page '_means the change of the body and mind _if only we had just opened the bloody book a week ago'

'_Chapter Eleven – The Animagus Transformation_' Remus read over James shoulder.

They opened to the page and the four began to read. It turned out that becoming an animagus was a lot harder than any of them had anticipated. Sure they knew it wasn't easy but they didn't think it was _this _complicated.

'_To_ _begin you must brew the potion on the next page_' James turned the page 'THREE MONTHS? What type of potion takes three bloody months?'

'The type that gives you '_the ability to transfigure at will and keep your new form_'' Sirius read. 'Damn. It would probably help if any of us where any good at potions. I mean I'm pretty good but I'm not that good' he smirked.

'What about Evans?' She's the top our year and probably the year above us' James said.

'Jaime, how are you planning on convincing Evans on helping us out when she hates your guts and wont even say a simple yes to one date?'

'Sirius I don't have to convince her, Remus does' he smiled at Remus.

'What? How can Remus convince Lily?'

'My dear Peter are you completely blind' James shook his head as he spoke 'Have you not noticed how much time Remus here has been spending with her?'

'We don't all stalk Evans you know that don't you?' Peter retorted.

'True but he is our only hope'

'And how do you think I can do that? Convince Lily to help us brew a potion so you lot can transform into animagi and run around with me once a month under the full moon while I'm in wolf form. I'm sure she will jump at the chance'

'Look your second in our year at potions just say old Sluggy gave you an extra task to see if you can improve your skills and you need her help you don't have to tell her the rest'

'I suppose, ok I'll try' Remus muttered defeated. James high-fived Peter and Sirius and smiled.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Days passed and Remus had tried a number of times to ask Lily for her help but something always got in his way. Thursday morning he tried on the way to Herbology but Evanna had come up behind them and he still found it hard to talk to her. Saturday morning Sirius being the idiot he was had interrupted before realising what Remus was trying to ask. Now Monday morning Remus noticed Lily coming down for breakfast with out her friends. _Probably still in bed_ he thought. Peter nudged Remus in the side and pointed at Lily. Remus nodded and stood up.

'Er Lily, do you have a minute?'

'Yeah sure, Remus. Are you okay?' she said sitting down at the Gryffindor table far away from the rest of the marauders.

'Yes I'm fine, a bit tired but not too bad' Remus smiled tiredly, the full moon was the next day.

'Good, make sure you get some rest before, er you know' she laughed.

'Er Lily I was wondering if you would help me with something' he changed the subject as two Ravenclaws passed; walking to their table 'I mean this potion. It's pretty advanced but I think we could figure it out if we both worked on it'

'Yeah sure that sounds good where did you get it from?' she asked buttering some toast.

'I was talking to Slughorn after potions the other day and asked if there was any thing I could do for extra credit because I miss so many lessons or just to practice really and he gave me a bunch of instructions and ingredients. I'm er not sure what it does but its N.E.W.T. level. I just thought it might be something you might want to do too. Though don't tell Slughorn, I wasn't meant to say anything'

'I don't know Remus if I wasn't supposed to know and it's really advanced…'she trailed off taking a bite of her toast.

'It would help you in class too, it will make the potions we are doing now look like cookie recipes'

'I suppose' Lily replied thinking about improving her grade even more. 'Okay I'll do it' she smiled.

'Great thank you, er do you want to start it this weekend? I suppose we will have to do it in one of our dorms?' he said reluctantly, Evanna was still a bit of a sore spot. Although the pair had called it off, it was not due to lack of feelings more because of the _furry little problem_. This, of course, made Remus hate what he was even more.

Lily could see the look on his face so quickly said 'what about your dorm? Then I don't have to explain to my friends what we are doing I'm sure your friends wont even ask what we are doing'

'Sounds good and I'll make sure James and Sirius are no where in sight' he smiled knowingly.

'Now that is an excellent idea' she beamed 'looks like Alice and that managed to drag themselves out of bed' she waved them over.

'Okay well see you later. Are you still on for tomorrow night?'

'Definitely, I want to help you as much as I can' Remus smiled and returned to the Marauders.

'What did she say?' James said before Remus could even sit down.

He smiled 'she said yes but you two' he pointed at James and Sirius 'need to make sure you are far away from our dorm on Saturday morning'

'Evans in our dorm and I have to stay away' James said disgruntled.

'Sorry mate. Do you want this potion done or not?'

'You look awful!' Sirius interrupted

'Always so subtle Siri' Remus laughed 'full moon's tomorrow, remember?'

'Oh yeah sorry' Sirius shrunk back in his seat.

'Yeah my _furry little problem _does take its toll on me' Remus laughed but the others just stared at him.

'Your what?' Peter asked confused.

Remus had forgotten that this little code name was Lily's invention and his friends did not know about it.

'Er my _furry little problem _is just a name my mother used to use' Remus lied 'she never really accepted what I am' although the first bit was a lie, the last sentence was not. The truth is neither of Remus' parents accepted what he was, and he never really understood why.

'Ha ha I like it' James laughed '_furry little problem_'

Tuesday night Remus went down the hole hidden beneath the roots of the whomping willow. As the full moon rose his body contorted and twisted into that of the form of the werewolf. He bit and scratched himself due to irritation of being confined like every month.

Lily stood a few metres away from the Whomping Willow waiting for the sun to rise and Remus to return to human form. When it came she picked up the long stick Remus used to poke the knot at the tree's base that would immobilise it. She entered the shrieking shack and helped Remus as she had done for every transformation since Halloween.

Later that morning she returned to Gryffindor common room only to bump into her friends.

'Where have you been?' Nevaeh asked.

'Yeah we woke up and you were gone' Alice said.

'I woke up early with a headache. I went down to the hospital wing for a potion to ease it up'

'You were in the hospital wing? Was anyone else there?' James interrupted suddenly.

'Err no why?' _why was he asking me this? Does he know?_

'No reason, just wondered'

'You are weird Potter'

'Thank you Nevaeh'

'Your welcome' she smiled in return.

'No Remus?' Alice asked curiously.

'Nope, he er, he er' Peter looked around at his friends for help.

'Had a furry little problem' Sirius interrupted 'got a letter from his dad this morning their, er, cat's been attacked by some dog. Remus was always quite fond of their cat'

_WAIT WHAT? FURRY LITTLE PROBLEM? _Lily thought.

'You know? He told you?'

'Told us what?' James replied coolly but thought _does she know?_

'What are you on about Lils' Evanna said when Lily didn't answer.

'Nothing' she said quickly.

'Well I'm starving, I'm off to breakfast' Nevaeh said.

'You're always hungry' Alice laughed.

'Nothing wrong with a girl with a good appetite' Sirius said approvingly.

'Exactly' Nevaeh replied winking at Sirius.

The girls left the common room and headed down for breakfast.

As they got halfway down the corridor James called 'Evans, wait up!'

'You go ahead' she said to her friends 'I'll see what he wants'

They nodded and continued to the Great Hall.

'What is it Potter?'

'What did you mean by 'he told you'?' he said walking into a nearby empty classroom. She, Sirius and Peter followed.

She sat down 'I told you nothing. It s just something you said I thought…'she shrugged.

'_Furry little problem_' is that what I said that made you say that?' Sirius said.

'Why would it? Remus' cat is injured'

'He told you didn't he?' Peter said.

'I don't know what you are talking about now if you don't mind I'm hungry' she made to walk to the door but Sirius stood in her way. 'Excuse me' she said sharply.

'_Furry little problem_. We know what it means Evans, the truth and I know you do too, so just admit it'

'Black move out of my way'

'Admit it!'

'Fine yes I know what Remus' _furry little problem_ is I came up with the code name'

The boys looked shocked. 'You know Remus' is a werewolf'

'Yes Potter well done. Gold star to you for figuring that out' she said sarcastically.

'How long have you known?' Peter asked.

'How long have _you _known?' Lily repeated Peter's question.

'Since Valentines Day for certain, but we had our theories before that' Sirius responded 'what about you?'

'Halloween' she replied bluntly.

'Halloween?' All three boys shouted at the same time.

'Yes' she again replied bluntly.

'Your drink wasn't spiked was it?' Sirius asked like he knew the answer already

'No it wasn't but that was a lie for Remus not for me' she could tell they wanted the whole story so she told them how they had argued and she had followed to apologise and how she had come face to face with were-Remus. They seemed bemused.

'…and I have been helping him since and I will not let any of you get in my way. You can't stop me helping my friend' Lily finished rather coldly 'now my friends are waiting' and with that she stormed from the room leaving the boys in stunned silence.

**The next chapter will be up soon depending on what you all decide **

**Phoebe xxx**


	13. Marauder War

**I AM SO SORRY**

**I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE PROBABLY THINKING – STUPID PERSON WHO CANT EVEN STICK TO HER PROMISIES.**

**I HAD SUCH A CRAZY WEEKEND LAST WEEK AND SPENT MOST OF IT IN PAIN WITH A MIGRAINE SO LOOKING AT COMPUTER SCREENS IS A BIG NO NO BUT I HOPE YOU CAN FORGIVE ME **

**THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO IS READING AND REVIEWING MY STORY IT MEANS A LOT**

**ALSO A THANK YOU TO CLAIRBEAR1982 WHO HELPED ME COME UP WITH THE IDEA LATER ON IN THIS CHAPTER :)**

**R&R **

**ENJOY :)**

~~~ Marauder War ~~~

Lily walked into the hospital wing at lunchtime that day, straight up to Remus and sat down in the chair next to the bed. 'Were you planning on telling me the marauders know your secret?' she said only slightly accusingly.

'Ha ha sorry about that' Remus twisted to sit up in his bed but winced. He looked tired, as can be expected, but still, Lily could see that the fact his friends now knew his biggest secret was a huge weight off of his shoulders. Seeing Remus, she could see he was becoming more secure about his condition because of the acceptance she and his friends had given him. It made her smile inside and she knew she couldn't be angry with him.

'How are you feeling?' she asked concerned.

'As good as can be, considering' he smiled weakly.

'So they have known since Valentines Day. Did you tell them I knew?'

'No I figured you wouldn't want them knowing so I didn't tell them, although James did think you knew after I explained the whole Halloween incident, I just told them I stunned you to stop you from, well…'

'Oh, so I guess it was my fault then' Remus looked confused 'well when I came in this morning my friends asked where I had been so I said I'd been in the hospital wing for a headache cure, that's when Potter interrupted asking if I saw anyone, then someone asked where you were and the whole furry little problem came up'

'Oh yeah sorry about that just sort of slipped out'

'No worries I suppose they would have come up with their own code name eventually. Anyway…' Lily continued on the story of what happened that morning and Remus laughed.

'So am I to expect more visitors for you Mr Lupin' Madame Pomfrey said from behind Lily.

'Yes, James, Sirius and Peter figured it out a few weeks ago' Remus looked slightly guilty, Lily thought, and wondered why. The reason Remus was feeling guilty was that he had been told by his parents many a time not to mention his _condition_ to anyone. Not only had he not tried hard enough to hide his disappearances and general appearance around the moon, he had indeed confided in four other people. Although he didn't directly tell them, the fact that they knew meant that others could guess too.

'Okay as long as they don't cause any problems in my infirmary or disturb any other patients I may have I here then they can visit. It is a nightmare enough when one of them is ill. Well I say 'ill' really its just another prank backfired…' the nurse carried on mumbling as she put down a vile of potion for Remus to take and returned to her office. Lily and Remus laughed silently.

'Just to say now for future reference - I'm just going to apologise in advance for any move James makes associated with my transition as I'm sure their will be quite a few' Remus said knowing his friend oh too well.

'Talking about me Remus' James strutted over to the bed and put his arms around Lily's neck.

'Get off me Potter' she got up and shoved his arms away 'I'll talk to you later Remus' she waved and walked towards the door.

'Daaayyaammn. Evans, why you leaving so soon? Why don't you stay a while? Here you could sit on my lap' he sat down on the chair and tapped his leg.

'Ergh you disgust me Potter' and she stormed from the room after pointing her wand at the chair, transfiguring it into a book. James yelped as he fell to the floor'

'Well played Evans, well played'

'So, how is our favourite little patient doing?' Sirius laughed and jumped on the end of Remus' bed 'Are we hungry?'

'Yeah, we bought you some food' Peter said handing Remus some lunch, the latter immediately tucked in, ravenous. The boys continued to talk until the point where James, Sirius and Peter all had to run to Transfiguration.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Lily woke around eight o'clock on Saturday morning. She rolled out of bed, her surroundings becoming clearer by the second. She jumped up and went into the bathroom to shower before getting dressed. All her friends were still asleep, Alice the previous night had made sure everyone knew she wanted to be up before nine so she had time to get ready for another date she had with Frank. Lily looked at her watch. It was almost nine. She walked over to Alice's bed.

'Alice, wake up' she lightly shook her friends shoulder 'Alice come on'. No answer. 'Ali if you don't get your but out of bed in the next ten seconds' she smiled and started to count down poking Alice at each number. 'Ten…' poke 'nine…' poke 'eight…' poke 'seven…' poke 'six…' poke 'five…' poke 'four…' she poked with more force 'three…' Alice stirred 'two, one. _Aguamenti'_

Alice shrieked from her bed waking Nevaeh up. 'What the hell is going on?'

'Why don't you ask Lily, Nevaeh, she is the one who decided to cover me in water?'

'She did that because you wouldn't wake up' Lily giggled 'its nine o'clock'

'Oh crap' Alice ran into the bathroom and Lily and Nevaeh laughed.

'So, what you up to today?'

'I'm helping Remus with something' Lily shrugged.

'Really? You and Remus are getting quite close at the moment, nothing going on I should know about?'

'Neev you know we are just friends, I wouldn't go there with him'

'Why not he is sort of gorgeous in a non-obvious sort of way, and a Marauder' Nevaeh smiled suggestively.

'I have my reasons' Lily said thinking about Evanna 'anyway what are you up to?'

'I think I'll go see that lovely Ravenclaw in the year above, we were having a nice little 'chat' the other night' and then she was lost in her own thoughts.

Lily rolled her eyes and left the dorm. She climbed the boys' stairs and knocked on the door of the third year dorm.

'Who the hell is that this early?' came a muffled voice from inside the room.

The door slowly opened and Lily saw James standing in his boxers, rubbing his eyes. When he noticed who it was he yelped 'Evans, er, what are you doing here?' but then he smiled cockily at her.

'Don't get your hopes up, Potter; I'm here for Remus'

'Remus? Right yeah, well we need to get changed before we can leave you two to it, feel free to stay and watch' he said suggestively, smiling that cocky grin she hated so much.

'Just tell Remus I'll be down in the common room waiting for him' and she descended the stairs.

Half an hour later three marauders exited from the boys stairs.

'Were done Evans. Wouldn't you rather come and watch me practice quidditch?'

Lily walked straight passed them, ignoring him and entered the boys' dorm.

'Hello, sorry about that earlier' Remus laughed.

'Not your fault Potter is an arrogant big headed idiot' Remus rolled his eyes 'So shall we get started?'

'Sure' Remus had set up a cauldron and a clear table space for their work.

'Can I see the potion instructions?'

'Yes, here you go' Remus said handing Lily a bit of parchment they had copied the potion onto.

'Wow this looks really complicated, _three months_ what kind of potion takes _three months!_'

'I don't know why don't we just start then test it when we finish' Remus said a little nervous that Lily would figure out their plan or see through his lies.

'Okay then' Lily replied thinking about what sort of potion she was brewing.

'So we need _five drops of syrup of hellebore mixed with two sprigs of yarrow root…_' They continued with little conversation for a couple of hours until the potion turned the royal blue colour the parchment said.

'Okay once we add the Wattle Seed the potion has to be left for two weeks, when it should turn a purply-pink colour' they started to clear the mess they had formed on the floor 'looks like everything has gone without a hitch, high five' Lily lifted her hand high above her head where it was met by Remus'.

'Sure does and just in time for lunch' Remus said as his stomach rumbled. The pair laughed as they headed towards the Great Hall.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

James woke bright and early on the morning of Monday the 27th of March as he was hoisted up into the air by his ankles.

'ARRGH WHAT THE HELL?' James screamed.

'Happy birthday bro' Sirius shouted back lowering his wand letting James down. He fell onto the edge of the mattress and with a 'humph' he bounced and fell to the floor.

'Be nice Sirius it is his birthday after all' Remus snickered.

'Exactly, Sirius. Listen to Remus' James smirked, picking up his glasses and putting them on.

Peter looked at Remus who was fighting a smile and looked at Sirius. James looked at his three friends faces – they were hiding something. Deciding he wasn't going to let them know he knew something, James strolled over to the bathroom to shower. _I wonder what they are up to _James thought as he washed out the shampoo. But today was just no normal birthday like anybody else's – this was a marauder birthday. On Sirius' last birthday all the Slytherins ended up with the words 'Marauders rule' or 'I love Sirius' or 'Gryffindor at heart' written somewhere on their bodies in an ink that lasted midnight to midnight of. For Remus' they charmed all of his books to follow him round for the day occasionally blurting out random lines or bumping him on the back of the head. Initially Remus was impressed with the charms they had managed to place on the books, but he, along with most of the teachers, got fed up of the random quotes and the abuse – which only made James, Peter and Sirius laugh more. Peter had been given one of Zonko's five minute song sweets. This was designed to make the consumer sing every word they said for a solid five minutes. The aim of the day was to see who could get him to eat the most but the only thing was, Peter didn't realise and willingly ate the whole bag – when James offered him one – before opening his mouth to speak. He spent the next three days singing everything, McGonagall eventually sent him to the hospital wing where Madame Pomfrey had to contact the joke shop for some form of an antidote.

After his shower James got changed and checked his reflection in the mirror. Normally he would look, ruffle his hair and then walk down to breakfast, but this time his reflection wasn't what he expected. His hair had turned electric blue. Before the others had time to react James whipped out his wand and shot a jelly-legs curse at each of them.

'Haha funny guys, blue hair, completely original' James said, sarcasm dripping off of his tongue.

'Well, you know we can't have you having a normal birthday now, can we?' Sirius said struggling to get up.

'Well we did have other plans for your birthday but I reckon they can wait for next year, ergh will you please lift the jinx James, I have an idea' Remus said also struggling as Peter had just landed on top of him. James obliged. 'Now as I was saying we had other plans but I can see Sirius is going to pay you back for that jinx, of course you will retaliate and our plans will fail. So how about this' the other three were paying close attention 'a contest. Who ever can successfully prank or jinx the others the most wins'

'Me likey. Rules?' Sirius said hyped up.

'Nothing to extravagant we all know you can get carried away' Remus looked at James and Sirius who both had a look of mock innocence on their faces 'don't even try to deny it, nothing to hurt anyone, no one can be jinxed outside our group, er I think that's all'

'Do we have a safe zone? I mean for time out not a place to hide' Peter muttered.

'The Great Hall? Then we can eat in peace'

'Good idea Siri' Peter beamed. He didn't like to be interrupted when eating.

'OK' Remus found a spare piece of parchment and wrote each of their names. He then pointed his wand at it. 'This parchment will keep count, sort of like the house point system, so no one can cheat'

'And the winner gets?' James said, eyes gleaming with excitement.

'Six galleons. Two from each of the losers'

'Deal. I'm in' Sirius put his hand out in front of him.

'Me too' James placed his hand on top of Sirius'.

'And me' Peter squealed and repeated the action.

'It's settled then' Remus' hand joined the pile 'We start after breakfast so at least James can open his presents'

'Agreed' James said and dove for one of the presents at the end of his bed.

Forty minutes later the boys were ready to leave the Great Hall. The majority of Gryffindor knew it was James' birthday and were all anticipating trouble from the four boys. Many heads had already turned their way due to James' hair.

'Here we go' Sirius said as they approached the door.

The second they crossed the boundary line James pulled out his wand and shot another jelly legs curse at Peter, who yet again toppled over.

'Point one goes to James' James yelled throwing his arms in the air in celebration.

Remus had also pulled out his wand, but on an unsuspecting James while he cheered. A bat bogey hex hit him square in the face the same time Sirius shot him a body bind curse. The on lookers all burst out laughing at the sight of James flat out on the floor with a rather nasty looking face. Remus quickly reversed his curse and ran up towards their transfiguration class. Sirius removed the curse on Peter and followed after Remus. James was not happy.

During transfiguration Remus was sent to the hospital wing as James had placed an enlargement charm on his ears. Before leaving Remus changed Sirius' robes pink and Peter and James had both suffered tickling charms. This got them all three detentions each.

Herbology was a similar affair. Remus walked in ten minutes late and gave Professor Root a note from Pomfrey. On returning to his seat he hit Sirius with an extension charm with out him noticing. The class watched in amusement as Sirius' hair grew longer and longer, curling itself as it grew. Seeing what Remus had done Peter transfigured Sirius' robes into a dress, which he noticed and screamed. James too joined in and charmed Sirius' lashes to grow a little longer, lips to turn red and eyeliner to appear at his eyes.

'Mr Black is there a reason you are making such a fuss?' Professor Root asked. Sirius who was sitting near the back of the classroom stood up and pointed to himself.

'Maybe because I look like a girl' he retorted a little rudely but mainly upset.

'Nice curls Black' Nevaeh called from the front where she a Lily were giggling. Professor Root too was grinning at the sight.

'Ahhh' Sirius cried as he pulled his hair round so he could see it 'why does everyone always go for my hair?'

'I don't know mate, but are you trying to tell us something?'

'I think James is right. Not a little secret you may be hiding' Remus chuckled.

'An innermost desire, maybe?' Peter joined in.

'Nope I'm good. But at least we all know I still look hot, even if I do look like a girl'

'Hot isn't the word I would use' James said.

'I'm still hotter than you' Sirius smiled flicked his hair over his shoulder and sat back down. This had the whole class rolling around on the floor with laughter. It was at that point Professor Root decided to call everyone's attention.

After Herbology they made their way back up towards the castle. Sirius had transfigured his dress back to his robes, but couldn't remove the makeup or shorten the hair.

'So come on then, who got my hair?' Sirius said slightly frustrated.

'Now that would be telling' Remus smirked.

'Lupin' Sirius replied with disgust 'game on brother'

'Definitely' Remus started running towards the castle. He pointed his wand over his shoulder and Sirius' laces tied themselves together. He fell; face first, on the ground. Everyone surrounding laughed as they walked past.

'Damn him. The one time he doesn't care for the rules'

'The one thing your better than Remus at and he's quite literally knocking you onto your ass'

'James is right, you are lacking today' Peter agreed.

'I can see this is going to turn into a Remus vs. Sirius war, rather than a marauder war' James chuckled as Sirius ran up to the castle to find Remus. He took a few steps forward ahead of Peter then turned round suddenly pointing his wand crying '_Protego_. Sorry Pete, better luck next time' Peter had attempted to send a babbling curse his way. Peter in return just kicked the ground annoyed.

Divination was the last subject of the day. This subject didn't require wands so on entry Professor Estrella called the marauders up to the front of the classroom and confiscated their wands.

'But Professor, that's not fair' Sirius whined.

'I have foreseen the mischief you will get up to this hour with your wands and personally I am getting too old to deal with it'

'But?'

'No buts Mr Black, now all of you os sentais. You can have your wands back at the end of the lessons'.

Professor Estrella was a Spanish-born witch who had fallen for a British wizard in her younger years. Her long waist-length grey hair had streaks of the golden brown former colour. It was neatly pulled back into a pony tail. Her purple robes looked worn, but still respectable. She was a kind witch, but obviously not in the mood for games today.

Divination was, well, as boring as always especially with a lack of wands. All four regretted taking divination. Although it was a good lesson to skive off, they really didn't care about the triangle shape or the boot shape that may have formed in the dregs of their tea. The hour dragged on and on, until the bell eventually rang for dinner. The boys quickly grabbed their wands and run from the tower. Lily and Nevaeh looked at each other. Nevaeh laughed as Lily rolled her eyes.

Peter was just aiming to reach the promise of safety with in the walls of the Great Hall. The four boys all ran at top speed down the corridor, running head first into a group of now angry second year Ravenclaws.

'Sorry girls' James called over his shoulder as he aimed a tripping curse at Peter, which Remus blocked. Sirius too ran past the girls but then back tracked stand next to them.

'Why hello girls' Sirius smiled widely at a cute blonde girl who looked Sirius up and down and giggled. Her friends joined in. 'Ah yeah' Sirius said remembering the hair and makeup 'well you know this will be reversed after dinner, maybe I'll see _you_' he pointed to the blonde 'outside your common room around six thirty?'

'Yeah maybe' she smiled sheepishly, linked arms with one of her friends and strolled off down the corridor.

'Oi Siri' James called; he had stopped at the end of the corridor 'finished flirting yet?'

'Just about' he winked and caught up to James. They found Remus and Peter duelling in the entrance hall. Remus' ears had grown again. Peter had boils all over his face and seemed to have shrunk about four inches. This bewildered both Sirius and James who didn't know there was even a spell to cause someone to shorten. A crowd was forming but all this did was fuel the duel. James looked at Sirius who had the same expression that must have been on his face.

'Levicorpus?' James asked causally twirling his wand.

'Levicorpus' Sirius confirmed and simultaneously they flicked their wands and Remus and Peter flew into the air before landing in a thump to the ground. The boy's faces showed utter shock, not realising the presence of their friends, but Remus was quick and he sent a spell Sirius' way.

'_Densaugeo' _Sirius ducked and an unsuspecting fifth year Slytherin got hit straight in the face with the spell. His teeth, already crooked, started to grow at an increasing rate. Many more spells were shot, some reached their targets, and some hit the crowd. After ten minutes the lack students in the dinner hall caught the attention of some of the staff population. McGonagall, Evergreen and Root all stood at the door. Evergreen to couldn't help but smile at the sight of the boys, who were just being boys, but McGonagall was not in a good mood.

'WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON HERE? I CAN TOLERATE YOU FOUR HEXING EACH OTHER BUT THIS HAS GONE TOO FAR'

Everyone knew that when McGonagall spoke in that tone that they needed to stop whatever they were doing. This was the tone of voice that told the boys they had indeed done something more than intended. They all hung their heads.

'Now will one of you like to explain what is going on here?' The Professors eyes were menacing.

'Well you see, Professor, its James' birthday today so we thought we would have a bit of fun' Sirius' confidence surprised everyone around them considering what mood their favourite teacher was in.

'Fun? You call this fun?' she looked around and so did the Marauders. It appears that more than one or two spells missed their targets as around twenty onlookers had bright coloured or extreme curled hair, boils, growing body parts, or some other jinx or hex.

'Er we didn't mean to hit anyone else, just us' Sirius said a little less confident now.

'Follow me, anyone else who has been hit please make your way down to the infirmary' with one last look she marched down the corridor. All four boys knew where they were going – Dumbledore's office. It wasn't the first time, but still, it wasn't fun. They walked in silence occasionally smirking at each other behind McGonagall's back.

'_Pepper Imps_'

The stairs started to move. Their Professor hopped onto a step and the others quickly followed. The stairs continued to move until they reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office. McGonagall knocked twice and then entered when Dumbledore called.

'Ah my favourite trouble makers' the headmaster smiled. Sirius and James smiled back but stopped immediately at the look McGonagall gave them. 'So to what do I owe the pleasure, I can see by the look of you, you have been in a bit of a duel? Am I right?'

'Yes, Professor' the four boys said as one, hanging their head in mock shame that they had learnt to perfection over the last couple of years.

'Chin up boys, I believe I can handle this Professor' McGonagall looked even crosser at the idea of not being allowed to stay for their punishment. Her eyes narrowed as if she didn't quite sure if the headmaster was being serious or not. When she decided he was being serious she regretfully walked from the room.

'Well boys, care to explain?'

'Well its James' birthday…'

'Happy Birthday James' the old man smiled warmly.

'Thank you sir' James said a bit confused by his tone.

'Your welcome, please continue Mr Black'

'Er as I was saying its James' birthday so we wanted to have a little fun, so we decided on doing this little war thing. Strictly just on each other, you know, hexes and stuff, we just got a bit carried away and a crowd formed and a few spells went awry…and yeah'

'I see. I know your intentions were not to target anybody outside your four, but boys when have you ever followed your intentions? Although you do not mean to, more often than not you do involve someone outside of just you four. Luckily this time it appears nobody has been seriously hurt but I must still issue you with a punishment for the countless disruptions that have occurred through out today. Each of you shall loose ten points each and receive three detentions'

'But, Sir?' all four said at the same time.

'Let me finish. Although you have been disruptive you have shown good spell work so I here by award you five points each for that reason. Just don't tell Professor McGonagall for I fear she may not be happy with me'

They all smiled at their light sentence.

'You shall be serving detention with Hagrid, Mr Black and Mr Lupin, and helping Professor Flitwick with a few things Mr Potter and Mr Pettigrew' and with a wave of his wand all four boys returned to normal, James' blue hair and all. 'Now one last thing, I do hope you are taking that book I leant to you four very seriously. It is not something which can be taken lightly. There are huge implications if something were to go wrong. I trust you to not reveal to anyone your plans or my involvement. This is simply a case of an old fool who likes to see others happy, as I am sure your intentions are.'

The boys returned to the great hall for dinner, sitting down in their usual spot.

'Can you believe Dumbledore letting us off that lightly?' James said as he bit into his roast potato.

'Yeah I know. I was sure we were in for it then. I reckon he has a soft spot for us' Sirius agreed. They quickly finished their dinner and half ran up to Gryffindor tower eager to see who had won.

As the reached their dorm they stared at the parchment which said as follows.

James – IIIII IIIII IIIII III Totals - 18

Sirius – IIIII IIIII IIIII II 17

Remus – IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII III 23

Peter – IIIII IIIII IIII 14

It was clear that the winner was Remus. James and Sirius looked at each other in shock.

'How on earth did you do that?'

'You may be better at pranking, Sirius, but I do know more spells and I'm better at protecting myself, you and your hair being a prime example. I can't believe you looked like a girl for a whole day' Remus laughed but James interrupted.

'But my reflexes are better, I'm the quidditch player'

'Aw is James going to sulk on his birthday just because his friend didn't let him win?'

'No, shut up Peter I don't sulk' but James was very much sulking as was Sirius when they handed over their galleons. Peter wasn't too fused as he knew he had no chance beating his friends.

'How about we go get something from the kitchens, it is after all your birthday James?' Remus said in a sort of make up way to stealing his glory.

'Yeah that sounds great' James quickly got over it and grabbed the cloak.

An hour later the boys returned with a bottle of Fire Whiskey each and a ton of food. The celebrated James birthday well into the night up in their dorm and fell asleep in the early hours where ever they had crashed.

**Hope you liked it **

**Os sentais means sit yourselves down – for those of you who didn't know **

**Please Review it gives me encouragement to write the next chapter :)**

**Phoebe xxx **


	14. Boys Will Be Boys

**IM REALLY SORRY FOR NOT POSTING my life has been a bit hectic at the moment, so haven't really had time to write **

**School is out now so I thought I'd write a ton to make it up to you**

**So this 7,000 word chapter is you xmas prezzie from me :) because im such a nice person**

**I know my story is a bit bitty and does a lot of jumping around time-wise but I don't really want to do a day to day story on years three or four as those years aren't as exciting, unless its something like the **_**furry little problem**_** I've already wrote about. **

**Just to let you know I've changed previous chapters with Bellatrix – I've had an idea and I need her to be in the year above for it to work – just to let you know**

**Warning the italics a little way down are a flashback to their second year**

~~~ Boys Will Be Boys ~~~

It was early on a Saturday morning in early May and all four marauders were sitting cross legged in the middle of their dorm, surrounding a rather ancient book. This was an unusual sight to see all of them up this early, unless James had quidditch practice. Remus opened the book to the page titled _Animagi_.

'I've been reading ahead in this book. Although the instructions clearly say that the potion needs to be finished first before you do anything else we may be able to try the next part. The next step is learning a spell. Its N.E.W.T level so it isn't going to be easy but I don't see why we can't try it now. By the time the potion will be finished it will be the end of term, and we are not allowed to use wands outside of Hogwarts.' Remus skimmed the page looking for the details on the spell.

'And what is this spell? What does it do?' Sirius asked intrigued.

'Well it's supposed to give you an insight as to what your animagus form will become, so it's easier to know what to focus on when you finally get to the transfiguration stage. It's called the patronus charm'

'I've heard of that, my dad can do it, he casts the spell and a huge lion appears from his wand. It can change though it's weird. My mums changed apparently when she fell for my dad, hers is a lioness now' James said. He had always been fascinated when he was little and his parents used to cast the spell to entertain him.

'Oh great does that mean your patronus is going to pine after Lily's just like you do?' Sirius laughed.

'Har har very funny Siri, at least we know yours will never match anyone's you don't keep a girl for more than one day' James retorted.

'You know the saying, James, short and sweet' Sirius smiled and wriggled his eyebrows.

'If you two are finished I want to know more about this spell' Peter interrupted.

Remus laughed 'Yes a corporal patronus, which is what we are aiming for, takes on the form of an animal which represents us and therefore our animagus forms, well yours I already know my inner animal'

Sirius and James immediately made a wolf call 'Ah-wooooo' whilst laughing.

'You children' Remus rolled his eyes 'shush before someone hears you'

'So what do you do?' Sirius asked still grinning widely.

'You say _expecto patronum _whilst thinking of a happy memory and hope for the best' Remus explained.

'Is that it, hardly seems N.E.W.T level' Peter didn't sound convinced of its difficulty.

'Look it says here' Sirius said turning the book his way '_a corporal patronus is the strongest although a basic patronus (white wisps of smoke) are still effective_. So casting the spell is easy just the corporal bit is difficult'

'When do we start?' James asked excited.

'Well it would be a good idea to find somewhere bigger than our dorm to practice' Remus looked around at the state of their room – _a tidier one too_ he thought.

'What about the Room of Requirement?' Peter looked around.

Halfway through their second year Sirius and James had decided to take a stroll down to the kitchens at three o' clock in the morning

'_I'm hungry' James whined 'does someone want to sneak down to the kitchens with me?'_

'_James shut the hell up and go back to sleep its three o'clock in the morning'_

'_Alright, Remmy, calm down. Oi Sirius. WAKE UP!'_

'_NO DON'T HEX ME IT WASN'T ME!' Sirius shouted as he fell out of bed backwards. 'Ow what happened?'_

'_Siri get up I'm hungry, we are going down to the kitchens' James said almost commanding Sirius. He ignored what Sirius had said as he knew he often dreamt of his home life._

'_Ah cool, why am I on the floor?' Sirius rubbed his head as he stood up._

'_You fell out of bed'_

'_James I'm warning you!' came from the direction of Remus' bed._

_Sirius shrugged and put on his dressing gown. James threw the cloak over both of their heads and they crept down to the common room which was empty. They made their way out of the portrait hole._

'_Who's there?' the Fat Lady said groggily 'do you even know what time it is?' she looked around. 'Hello? Whose there?'_

_James put his finger up to his mouth telling Sirius to shush as they carried on walking when suddenly the cloak disappeared from around him. James looked around confused. He saw Sirius flat out on the floor the whole of his centre unseen._

'_You idiot' James said in a low voice._

'_Sorry I tripped' Sirius looked guilty._

'_You two. I should have known. And with an invisibility cloak too. I bet Dumbledore would love to hear about this, wait till I see Violet, an invisibility cloak in my house'_

'_Please don't tell anyone, come on please' James smiled at her and she swooned._

'_Ok well as long as you two are quick so you don't wake me up again' she said as Sirius stood up._

'_Sure thing, my-lady' Sirius winked and pulled the cloak back over their heads. They made their way down to the kitchens with out further trouble but it was the return to the tower that was the problem. As they climbed the stairs back to their tower they noticed Filch standing outside an empty classroom four doors away from the portrait hole._

'_Does that man ever sleep?' James said a little too loudly._

'_Oh now you've done it' Sirius muttered as Filch called 'you little bleeders, think you can get up in the night and not be caught'_

_They climbed up the stairs onto the seventh floor._

'_Few that was close' Sirius said as he took a step back and fell straight into a suit of armour. 'Damn'_

'_Run' James said simply. They ran half way down the corridor and then stopped because coming from the direction they were running in came the unmistakable screeching on one of Peeves' songs._

'_Students out of bed,_

_Think they won't get caught_

_But Filch will have their head,_

_When they are sought'_

'_Crap back the other way' James said and they turned but Filch came into sight. _We need somewhere to hide _thought James. They turned again towards Peeves._

'_What do we do?' Sirius muttered._

_All of a sudden an old wooden door appeared in the middle of the wall only a few feet tall but started growing. It continued growing until it was eight feet tall. Two strong, but aged metal handles appeared at the centre as the door froze._

'_That way?' James asked pointing towards the door._

'_Sure' Sirius shrugged and they ran for the door. It was not as heavy as they had anticipated and they both fell through the gap and fell on top of one another. The door silently shut behind them and started to shrink again._

'_James, get your fat butt off of my back' Sirius complained from beneath James._

'_Sorry mate' James replied getting up and extending his arm to help his friend. 'What is this place? Why is it so dark?' he looked around and as he spoke the room lit up like someone had flipped the switch. 'Whoa'_

_With the lights now on they could see the contents of the room. It held a couple of old, faded red sofas at one end with a fireplace and a coffee table, and on the other end were two beds with the Gryffindor crest on the duvets. _

'_What is this room? It looks like someone lives here' Sirius exclaimed walking over to the beds, shivering. 'Its cold in here I wish I bought my slippers'. A second after he stopped talking a pair of navy fluffy slippers appeared a metre away from him 'Wait does this room give you what you want?'_

'_I'm not sure. I doubt someone lives here Siri or the door would not have opened to us. We could stay here tonight and find out though' James smiled._

'_A camp out' Sirius smiled back, jumping onto the bed nearest to him._

'_We will have to sneak out early though, we have no uniform' Again as soon as the words had left James' mouth a wardrobe appeared. Curious he approached it. It was about a foot taller than James himself but quite narrow. It had a floral pattern around the edges of each door and on the door knob. James pulled them open to reveal two sets of Gryffindor uniform, one slightly taller than the other, this one being for James, the other was slightly bigger, for Sirius who had more muscles than James despite not being on the quidditch team. 'Sirius! Uniform!'_

_The boys spent the next hour asking the room for the most random of objects from candles to a statue of Sirius to a bottle of Fire Whiskey – which to their disappointment didn't appear, as the law stated food and drink can not appear out of thin air._

'That could work; we could ask it for enough space to practice with out anyone hearing us' Remus agreed.

'It's settled then' Sirius said with childlike excitement.

'Lets go' James expression matched Sirius'.

Before anyone could say anything they had picked up the book and were out of the door. Peter and Remus looked at each other smiling at their friends' behaviour, the latter rolled his eyes.

Twenty minutes later they stood in a wide, clear space in the Room Of Requirement. The tall windows lined the walls, glass with a tint of blue reflecting the clear spring sky.

'Shall we begin, men?' James smiled his crooked smile.

'Yes, sir' Sirius replied 'Remus, what do we have to do?'

Remus opened the book to the page with the details of the spell and skimmed over the slanted writing. 'The incantation is _expecto patronum_ there is no particular wand movement, just don't wave it around like an idiot' he raised his eyebrows at Sirius who protested with a 'What?' 'You know what I mean you do it every time you are frustrated at not being able to cast something' Sirius looked at the floor knowing the truth of the words 'think of the most powerful happy memory you can, then say the words'

Each boy pulled out their wands. Even though Remus was not becoming an animagus, he wasn't going to pass up on an opportunity to master such a high level charm. They stood informally in a line all pointing their wands out in front of them. For Remus the memory part was easy for him, especially since it happened recently so was fresh in his mind. He thought of two memories with one huge connection – acceptance. He thought of Lily's reaction to his lycanthropy, the way she swore to help him no matter what, the feeling of isolation flooding out of his body at the though of not having to go through each month alone. The other memory was the acceptance of his friends. His gratefulness of having three more people care for him whilst knowing his deepest, darkest and dangerous secret. The day they said they would break the law for him to become what seems impossible for their age and ability.

James thought of the first time he saw Lily. The red head with silent tears streaming down her face, leaning against the window watching the countryside fly by. Her hair straight, over one shoulder, that seemed to curl as one at the bottom rather than in little pieces. Her hand that pushed it behind her ears, which brought his attention to the freckles that lightly dusted her face. Thick lashes framed her emerald eyes that seemed to sparkle without the added help of the tears. He thought of the rush of some unknown – at the time – emotion through his body, a warm feeling.

Sirius's memory was also from their first day of school. The freedom he felt as the hat shouted Gryffindor. After begging it, the hat had abided to his wishes, enabled him to live a decent life, with friends he had already made so quickly on the train. The freedom from the pureblood supremity of Slytherin and his family, because for once in his life Sirius Black did not have to be Sirius _Black_ , but just like any other first year – excited and curious. He had broken the family tradition. He was free – although that's what he thought at the time, his return from Hogwarts that Christmas proved him wrong, but at least he had some form of escape.

Peter's memory wasn't as specific as the others, but his like Remus' was based on acceptance. Because of his parents, Peter hadn't socialised with many other wizard children so was extremely shy about starting Hogwarts. He thought of how easily he managed to stumble across a group of friends who seemed to enjoy having him around. The inclusion they gave him, the brotherhood.

'How about we all try on three?' Sirius looked around as the other three nodded. 'One, two, three'

'_EXPECTO PATRONUM' _they all shouted at once. From Remus' wand shot a jet of white mist that travelled about four metres in front of him, he smiled at his first attempt as it died away. Both James and Sirius also managed to produce some form of mist that only lasted seconds. Peter only managed two short spurts out of his wand, looking a bit dejected he lowered his wands after seeing what his friends had cast.

'Ah maybe this is a bit harder than I thought' Peter mumbled.

'Yeah I sort of half expected an animal to appear first go' James laughed.

'James I told you it would take practice but at least we all produced something, it said in the book it normally takes three or four times before anything appears' Remus said pleased with his first attempt.

The boys all scattered around the room and continued to practice through out the morning. Remus had managed to keep his white mist up for longer than the original five seconds. James made no improvement due to his frustration but still did better than Sirius who got so frustrated the white mist stopped appearing all together. Peter managed to catch up with his friends and produced more than a couple of spurts.

'Was that your stomach Siri?' Peter laughed from across the room.

'Yeah I'm starving, do you reckon its time for lunch yet?' he asked.

'It should be, I think we better stop anyway now there is a vain in your forehead that looks like it's about to burst if you concentrate for any longer' Remus said.

'Oh no' Sirius muttered as a mirror appeared in front of him 'I do not have a vain, you git'

'No but the look on your face was priceless' James chuckled.

'Well I don't want a vain spoiling my good looks now do I?' he said smugly and strutted from the room. The other three followed feeling good about themselves – they were getting closer, even if it was just baby steps, towards helping Remus.

They sat at their usual spot at the Gryffindor table and quickly piled up their plates, shovelling the food into their mouths. They sat in silence as they ate until the Gryffindor third year girls walked past.

'Lily' Remus called standing up; she turned around 'the potion should be good to add the next bit tomorrow'

'Oh good it shouldn't be much longer till it's finished now' she smiled.

'Yeah that'll be good, maybe I can help' James said smirking.

'I don't think so Potter' she said coldly.

'Don't worry I'll make sure he is scarce' Remus chuckled.

'Good' Lily smirked back at James who laughed.

James called after her as she walked away 'Hey Evans? Go out with me?'

Lily scoffed and stalked from the hall.

James rolled his eyes as the others laughed.

'Hey Sirius' a giggling second year Hufflepuff said as her and her giggling friends walked past.

'Why hello to you too' Sirius winked back at the girl he thought was called Ella something or other. This caused the girls to fall into another round of giggling.

'Why don't we try again with the patronus charm tonight?' James suggested.

'But that means sneaking out after curfew' Peter moaned.

'Yeah but we will just have to be careful, considering the cloak wont fit over all four of us now' James replied 'I wish we had some way of knowing when people were coming'

'Oh Merlin'

'What Siri?'

'Do you not remember what we said last Halloween, I think, about a map of Hogwarts?' Sirius explained.

'Oh yeah an enchanted map' James said remembering.

'Yeah I remember' Peter joined in.

'Well I don't' Remus said confused.

'That's because, my friend, you were in hospital after being _hit by the whomping willow_' Sirius laughed.

'Oh'

'Lets do that tonight instead' James said smiling.

'What do we need?' Remus asked.

'Parchment, and lots of it, some ink, some form of spell so that no one else but us can see it' Sirius started.

'Yeah some sort of password lock, a charm to track everyone' James finished off the plan forming in his mind.

'Well we don't have enough parchment for that and the next Hogsmead weekend is in two weeks' Remus mused.

'Then we sneak out' James and Sirius said at once then the former added 'we'll use the Honeydukes passage'

'Why don't we go after lunch then so we are only breaking one rule?' Peter asked.

'Yeah sure it'll give us something to do'

Half an hour later the boys were scrambling down the tunnel on their way to Hogsmead.

'Oi do you mind' Sirius said as Remus walked into the back of him.

'Keep moving then, you keep stopping' Remus complained.

'Will you two stop arguing, you're like an old married couple' James said.

'Watch it James' Remus warned.

They finally arrived at Honeydukes where they lifted up the old floor boards above them and jumped through the hole, before setting the floor boards back. They walked around Hogsmead buying everything they thought they would need. When they had finished they stepped into the Three Broomsticks for a round of Butterbeers before returning to Hogwarts.

They entered the pub and quickly sat down at a small table at the back.

'I'll get these, you coming Sirius?' James said heading towards the bar. Sirius eagerly got up to follow.

'I'll give you one guess why those two have gone to get the drinks' Remus rolled his eyes. Peter laughed and looked over to the bar.

James and Sirius were both casually leaning on the bar trying to attract the attention of the young blonde bar-maid.

'Ere aren't you two meant to be over at the school' she said.

'Why Rosie you can't be saying that you don't want us around?' Sirius said in mock-hurt.

'Aw its ok darling, I won't tell anyone' Rosmerta replied leaning over the bar and pinching Sirius cheek like you would a child. This made James laugh.

'Ah James, what can I get you?' Rosmerta always appeared to prefer James, which made Sirius competitive to win her affection if only for the sake of a free drink one day.

'Four Butterbeers please, my love' James said smiling at the barmaid.

'Coming right up' she winked at him.

'Told you she liked me more'

'Never, James. All girls prefer me, it's just a natural thing' Sirius said puffing his chest out.

'Not this one mate' they often joked about this though neither of them were really interested.

'Here you go boys' Rosmerta said putting the four bottles on the bar.

'Thanks babe' James paid her and they returned to their table.

'She likes me more'

'I don't think so'

'Sure she does' the pair argued as they sat down.

'Get over it you two, you both know she loves me more' Remus laughed, smirking at his friends.

'So what are we doing about this map?' Peter asked.

'Well I think we should start by just mapping out the school, you know getting the measurements right and in proportion, before we do anything else' Remus said, he usually took control over anything that required thought – other than the pranks of course.

'I think we should do it in Gryffindor colours, that way if its discovered Gryffindor as well as us will go down in history as being smart enough to con the castle and everyone in it' Sirius beamed.

'Agreed, anyway the normal black ink is boring' James agreed.

'And you two couldn't have decided this before we bought a ton of black ink' Peter said in disbelief.

'Oops' they both said at once and simultaneously burst out laughing. Peter rolled his eyes.

'So once we have had our drink we will go back to the shop for red ink, then we should have about an hour or two to quickly record a floor or two of the castle' Remus said checking his watch.

'Cool' Sirius said emptying his bottle, realising the others were still almost full he added 'I might go and get another one' he winked at James, and strutted towards the bar where once again he leaned casually against it.

'So how about we work from the top downwards, that way we can do Gryffindor tower after curfew' Peter suggested.

'Good idea Pete' Remus praised 'yeah the astronomy tower too'

Rosmerta laughing caught their attention, obviously Sirius had just told a joke. They finished their drinks and headed over to the bar to drag Sirius away.

'Come one lover boy' Remus said ruffling Sirius' hair.

'I'll see you' Sirius pointed at the bar maid 'soon' then he lent over the bar and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

'I'll tell you one thing, if you and James here weren't so entertaining when you come in here, I'd be up to see McGonagall about yous sneaking out, g'night' she disappeared out back laughing softly to herself.

'What was that supposed to mean? Entertaining?' Sirius looked a bit disgruntled especially as James had been mentioned too.

The trek home was a little trickier considering they all had bags with them, inkwells being glass and all. Luckily they managed not to break any.

'Lets go then' Peter smiled, excitedly.

The four boys returned to their dorm first to dump their bags taking with them only a quill and a scrap of parchment each, they left the tower. They headed straight for the astronomy tower. Remus and James took down measurements which the former would later shrink to proportion on parchment. Sirius began to list all of the rooms they would need to visit on the seventh floor and then left with Peter to log the number of classrooms, suits of armour and statues. The seventh floor was generally empty as most of the classrooms, not including the Arithmancy one, were used as temporary rooms, which were guaranteed to be empty at the weekends. A total of ten classrooms, eight suits of armour and four statues later they moved onto the Divination tower. Three more classrooms and two offices were added – Divination and Ravenclaw head of house – and of course the entrance to their tower where the fat lady was deep in conversation with her friend Violet who spent more time outside her own portrait than inside of it.

They moved down to the sixth floor but after noting down the details on the Ancient Runes classrooms Remus looked at his watch.

'Ah crap' he muttered the called a little louder 'Guys five minutes till curfew, we better get back'

'Right we did quite well' Peter said pleased with their work.

'That we did, my friend. Just Gryffindor tower left for tonight then we can get the rest tomorrow' Sirius replied.

The four boys made their way back to their dorm, where they discussed their plans for tomorrow – well they tried, except Sirius levitated one of Remus' books to land on James' head. James then launched himself at Sirius who was laughing his head off. Remus was not pleased that his book was used in the process so he too tried to tackle Sirius, whilst Peter just watched and laughed. Peter generally was on the outside of the group, preferring to watch than participate – as long as he wasn't left out.

They finished mapping the majority of the castle the next day; they just had a few little details, the grounds and the other three common rooms to go over. Just as they were leaving the Great Hall after dinner, they saw Lily sitting at the base of the stair case with Snape.

'Hey Evans, you have better friends than Snivellus here, you don't need to feel sorry for him, he is used to being alone' James called across the entrance hall.

Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breathe.

'What do you want Potter? Why can't you just leave me and Severus alone for once in your life?'

'Because I don't like wizards or witches that call other wizard or witches rather nasty names just because of their blood' James said simply.

'Says the pureblood'

'Yes the pureblood who likes you for you and not because of your heritage' James tried to convince Lily who scoffed. 'He called you a mudblood not too long ago, do you not recall?'

'Thank you for insulting my memory but yes I can, but I also remember your wand' she pointed at James 'at his throat and the fact that he was pressured into acting that way because of your' she pointed at Sirius 'stupid cousin'

'Excuse me, she may be my cousin by blood, but I have nothing to do with her' Sirius added in disgust at the suggestion.

'Lily, just leave it' Snape muttered standing up next to her.

'No I will not leave it' Lily shouted.

'I think Snape needs to learn a lesson don't you?' Sirius said speaking only to James, but loud enough for everyone else to hear too.

'I do Siri; I do' James said whipping his wand out '_Levicorpus_' Sirius laughed. 'Apologise' nothing came from the boy 'I said apologise'

'SORRY' Snape shouted. James let him drop to the floor 'I'm sorry you're such an arrogant pig with a rather large head, you might want to change your ways Potter, you too Black, or you may find your future will be out of your control' and with that he stalked off.

'What is wrong with you?' Lily walked up to James and slapped him hard around the face. Sirius laughed but soon regretted it when Lily turned around and slapped him too.

'Ouch, love you too' James called after her as she ran off.

'Aw James is in luvy-wuvy' Sirius mocked, dodging the punch James aimed at his stomach.

'Shut it Sirius' James threatened.

'Ha, look he is blushing' Remus taunted.

'I am not' James said stubbornly turning redder.

They returned to the common room to finish off any homework they had neglected up to that moment, whilst Remus went up to their dorm with Lily to add the final ingredients to the potion. The idea that it was almost ready made James, Sirius and Peter very excited.

Monday morning dawned, and so with it the promise of another boring week of lessons. They sat down in their usual spot for breakfast, Lily still being angry at the incident the day before had stormed past the boys with a 'huff' before sitting down with her friends. This caused the boys to laugh, but not too loud in case she heard. In transfiguration they were learning how to turn their wooden chairs into soft comfy arm chairs. James took his usual place at the back, three rows directly behind Lily, giving him a lovely view of her hair, which he would quite happily spend the whole day staring at. The hour soon ended and Herbology was next. Much to Lily's dismay she was partnered up with Sirius on their latest project that would go towards their end of year grade – a project they would spend the rest of the year on. They had spent the last few weeks learning about Puffapods and their task was simple; keep your plant alive then harvest it when it's ready. This meant they would have to attend to their plants outside of lessons as well as in. _Great that's just what I need, more time with a bloody marauder_ Lily thought. The rest of the week continued in a similar fashion, boring lessons all day followed by either practice of the patronus charm, thinking of more details for the map or doing the odd bit of homework. The latter part included Remus and Peter only, James and Sirius refused to do too much think as it, and I quote 'hurts our brains to much'.

At Friday lunch the Great Hall appeared to be emptier than usual – a considerable amount of students weren't there.

'What's going on, why is it so empty?' Evanna asked her friends.

'I think it's got something to do with those secret meetings Dumbledore holds every Thursday. I still can't believe that its may and no one has found out what these meetings are about.' Lily said.

'Why do you think that?' Nevaeh asked.

'Look around, who's missing? Our sixth and seventh years, Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's too' she pointed to each table in turn.

'But, what about the Slytherins?' Evanna asked.

'They all left after the first meeting, remember? I was talking to Gideon yesterday and he mentioned something about a weekend outing or something, but he didn't explain what' Alice said curiously. A second later the marauders walked past where they were sitting.

'Well my brother never mentioned anything to me. Hey Black!' Nevaeh called.

'Why hello beautiful, can I help you with something?' Sirius said in a seductive tone, sliding onto the bench in-between Nevaeh and Lily. The latter rolled her eyes.

'Well we were just talking about the absence of the majority of the sixth and seventh years, and we reckon it has something to do with Dumbledore's meetings every Thursday, I was just wondering, because if anybody would know about this stuff it would be you lot, if you had heard anything?'

'To be honest with you, we were all wondering the same thing, I'm surprised no one has said anything about it' Sirius replied.

'Yeah that's what Lily said' Alice commented.

'Aw look at us thinking on the same wavelength for once, we grow up so fast' Sirius said in the tone of a very tearful but proud mother, causing a round of giggles from everyone but Lily who just sighed and turned away.

'Now don't be like that Evans, Sirius isn't that bad' James said sitting down on Lily's other side.

'Go away Potter'

'Do you have any others words in your vocabulary other than the words . . . .AWAY and POTTER?' James asked truly curious.

'Actually I have never said _I hate you_ but there is a first for everything, you know' Lily replied matter of factly. 'I'm going to be late for Runes, are you coming Remus?'

'Yeah sure, I'll see you all later' he gave a little wave and walked off with Lily.

'EVANS'

Lily turned round 'what is it Black?'

'We need to go to Greenhouse 3 to check on that plant later'

'I only checked it this morning'

'Come on, it's supposed to be a partner thing'

'Ergh fine we can go after dinner'

'It's a date' Sirius said triumphantly as Lily rolled her eyes and walked off 'I don't know why you have so much trouble James, that was easy to get her on a date with me'

'Shut up Sirius, it's not a date you are doing homework' James said.

'Still more than you've ever had' Sirius replied teasingly.

'You are going to get it, Black' James said.

'You'll have to catch me first' Sirius said as he got up and ran at full pelt from the hall.

'I suppose I better go follow them, bye' Peter said and then left the hall.

Alice, Nevaeh and Evanna were all laughing at the boys behaviours until they reached their Care of Magical Creatures lesson out on the grounds. Professor Kettleburn hushed them and told them to join the rest of the class.

'Okay class, settle down, today we are going to be talking about Nifflers, about how to distinguish them, their uses and personalities as such'

'Umph' came from behind the class. James and Sirius had turned up late the former running straight into the latter.

'Nice of you boys to join us, now can either of you tell me what a Niffler is?' the elderly man smiled, waiting for an answer.

'Er…' they each said in turn.

'Oh aren't they the gold diggers, Gringotts use them' James blurted out, surprised that he remembered something his uncle, who worked for the bank had told him years ago. The pair sat down.

'Correct, Mr Potter. Nifflers are attracted to shiny or sparkly objects, you may believe that they would be the perfect pet that could earn you a fair amount of money, but they do not see the difference between what is yours and what is someone else's so they commonly ruin the houses of anyone who owns them' the professor removed his watch 'Miss Redwood would you be so kind as to take my watch and hide it over there, and remember where you do'

The whole class turned around to see what the professor had pointed at. When the students had arrived they had seen the sight of a miniature maze four feet high, planted not too far away from where they were sitting now. 'Please do not make it obvious, as to where you have placed it, to the rest of the class.'

Alice stood up and took the professors watch and entered the maze. She walked around slowly so not to give away the hiding place of the watch. Once she had finished she returned and sat down again.

'Now will you all observe' he walked over to a crate, flicked his wand to unlock it, and removed a small struggling creature. 'This is a Niffler. Would someone be so kind as to time from when I say so how long it takes the creature to find my watch'

Four or five students looked at their watches and waited for the professor's signal. He put the Niffler on the floor and said 'now' when he let it go.

Twenty seconds later the Niffler returned holding the watch in his hands. The class all wowed at the quickness, well most of the class did.

'It can't be that hard to find the watch' Sirius said.

'Miss Redwood, would you please put the watch back where you hid it' confused Alice re-hid the watch. 'And now will someone please time how long it takes for Mr Black to find the watch'

'What?' Sirius said stunned.

'I knew someone would doubt the ability of the Niffler, so when I say go, please enter the maze and find the watch'

'Go on Siri, like you said, can't be that hard' James said mocking his friend.

'Yeah go on Siri' Peter joined in.

'Of course, easy' Sirius said standing up and walking to the entrance of the maze.

'GO'

The class watched as Sirius ran around the maze looking for the watch. Ten seconds passed and Sirius was still looking.

'Well you haven't beaten the Niffler, boy' Kettleburn said.

Twenty seconds.

Forty seconds.

A minute and a half.

Three minutes.

Five.

Seven.

'Okay I get it, Nifflers are better at this sort of thing, I give up'

The class smirked and laughed as Sirius returned to his seat.

'Miss Redwood if you please' Alice collected the watch.

'I looked there four times, how the hell did I missed that' Sirius said in disbelief.

The rest of the lesson consisted of a treasure hunt as such. The class was split into groups of threes, each of which had a different colour Niffler (due to a colour charm). The idea was to send your Niffler into the maze to collect either red, gold, blur or bronze shiny objects that the Professor had hidden magically after the 'Sirius experiment'. It was simple – Gryffindors collected the red and gold, and Ravenclaws collected. Each object was worth five points and for every object the colour of the opposing house, two points were docked. The group with the most points won the equivalent points for their house.

Twenty minutes after the game had started it was apparent that all the objects had been found. The winning group was James, Sirius, and Peter's group. Sirius was feeling slightly better now after the embarrassment before. Thirty-three points went to Gryffindor.

Charms was spent practicing the Glacius charm (which emits a blast of ice cold air from the end of your wand) against small fires. This lesson was going fine until James accidently shot warm air instead of cold causing his small fire to spread setting Evanna's robes on fire. Flitwick just rolled his eyes, extinguished the fire and sent the pair of them to the Hospital wing for minor burns.

'Mr Potter I see you here all too often, and I see you managed to bring someone other than the usual casualties with you' Pomfrey said returning to her office for her record book for all injuries.

'Yeah sorry about that Evanna'

'No worries, my parents are going to have to send me some new robes though' she giggled.

'They don't have to know I'll owl Madame Malkins later for some new one for you'

'You don't have to do that' Evanna protested.

'No doubt my mum will find out about this eventually so she'll make me pay for them anyway, might as well save the hassle' James shrugged his shoulders.

'Well thanks' she smiled as Madame Pomfrey returned.

'What did you say your name was, dear?'

'Evanna, Evanna Robins'

'Thank you, you both may go, well straight to dinner I suppose' she said looking at her watch.

After dinner Lily made her way down to the Greenhouses. Once she arrived she moved her Puffapod plant from the shelf that outlined the room, to one more central with more space. The plant was now three feet tall and contained a few pods hanging here and there. She started taking notes on each pod – their colour, size and description. When she finished the second pod Sirius walked through the door.

'Sorry I'm late Evans, what did I miss'

'Thank you Black for gracing me with your presence at long last, I'm taking notes on each pod, it looks like they have entered stage two of growth and our final essay needs to include diagrams. Could you start drawing one of the pods?' Lily pointed to the pod closest to her before moving round the plant to take notes on the next one.

They continued in silence for a few minutes. When Sirius, having finished his drawing spoke up. 'Is that okay?' he held it up to Lily.

Lily could not help her reaction 'Wow, that's amazing. I dint know you could draw'

'Well no offence Evans but you've never really tried to know me well enough to know that' Sirius said a little offensively.

'Oh, sorry' that shouldn't of affected her the way it did. It was true she knew Sirius just as much as she new the freckled Ravenclaw nerd two years above her. She had made on effort to know him either. _But _she thought _he is just as annoying as Potter so of course I wouldn't know him_. 'Actually, you haven't given me reason to want to know you'

'Fair enough' Sirius shrugged 'How about every time we meet up here I'll tell you something about me and you can tell me something about you, then at the end you can decide if you want to know me or not.'

Lily's curiosity got the better of her, as it usually does 'Okay' she agreed.

'Well, you learnt I can draw. What about you?'

'Er I don't know' Lily wracked her brains for something to say.

'Why don't you start with a basic one, like, where do you live?'

'No chance you'll only tell Potter'

'See you know me better than you think' he smirked.

'My middle name is Jayne'

'Wow that's really interesting' Sirius laughed, voice thick with sarcasm.

'Well that's all I have. I'll think of something better for next time. Now can you draw me one please' she pointed at the drawing.

'I know an easier way' Sirius pulled out his wand muttered a word and a second piece of parchment appeared with an identical drawing on it.

Lily rolled her eyes 'trust you to take the easy route'

'It just saves time, look see you're finished with the notes so we can go now' Sirius picked up the plant and returned it to its place. 'Are you coming?'

Lily shrugged 'Sure'

They made their way back to Gryffindor common room mostly in silence. Once inside the portrait hole Sirius said 'Bye Evans' then ran over to his friends. Lily scanned the room for her friends and saw them sitting by the fire. She walked over and pulled up a chair.

'Hey, how'd it go with Black'

'Not too bad actually Neev, we didn't even argue' Lily finished in mock out rage. Her friends all looked shocked.

'Wow the pair of you were in the same room, alone and that room is still standing?' Alice said in a disbelieving tone.

'Yeah I guess'

**Well that's it for another chapter**

**Ha I bet you thought I'd forgotten about those secret meetings, either that or you lot forgot but don't worry it is all part of my master plan **

**Merry Christmas everyone**

**Phoebe xxx**


	15. Lilies, Swimming and Revenge

**Sorry the posts from now on are going to be infrequent it's just that I have a lot of exams :( **

**Hope you enjoy the latest chapter, please review!**

~~~ Lilies, Swimming and Revenge ~~~

'ITS FINISHED' Remus shouted early that Thursday morning 'GET UP GET UP GET UP'

Remus of course was talking about their potion that was aiding in their attempt to become Animagi. After adding the last few ingredients the previous Saturday with Lily the potion now resembled the plum purple the book stated it should.

'WILL YOU THREE GET UP' _Merlin why wont they wake up!_

'Whoa where's the fire Remmy' Sirius said sleepily drawing back his curtains 'Merlin its five thirty, you better have a bloody good reason to wake me up this early'

'The potion is finished' Remus smiled.

'The what?' Sirius said, head still in sleep mode 'the potion…'he thought for a second 'wait the potion? the animagus potion? It's finished?' he finished a bit more awake and excited.

'Yep it just changed colour, a dark purpley colour' Remus answered in a _how great am_ I voice.

'Oi James! Peter! Get up' Sirius shouted.

'Wand out' Remus said pointing his wand at James. Sirius copied, pointing at Peter. This lately seemed the only effective way Remus could wake his friends. The room was filled with shrieks a second later as both boys were pulled into the air by their ankles then promptly returned back to their beds, James falling on his head and Peter bouncing off of his mattress and onto the floor.

'I swear you lot keep waking me up like this too often, knock it off will you' Peter moaned sitting up, rubbing his head.

'What with the wake up call?' James said rubbing his neck. 'How about just shaking me next time, yeah?'

'The potion is finished' Remus repeated for the umpteenth time.

'Really?' They both said forgetting about being woken up. The two boys ran over to where Remus was standing, next to the potion which bubbled every now and then.

'Er, that looks pleasant' James said in disgust.

'Well I'd get over that if I were you, you have to drink it' Remus said amused.

James, Sirius and Peter' mouths all fell open, shocked.

'You mean...'

'…we have to…'

'…swallow…

'…that crap…'

'…all of it?'

'Yep' Remus chuckled.

'When?' Peter asked reluctantly.

'Oh not for a while, it has one last ingredient to add'

'I thought you said it was finished?' James said confused.

'It is. The last ingredient is each of your blood it's a potion that works with your genes, which are unique to you, so therefore requires your blood to be put into your glass. It's a bit like the poly juice potion, requiring hair. But anyway the books says a simple freezing charm will keep it fresh enough until the time comes to add the blood'

'So why did we, I mean you, have to brew it now?' Sirius asked.

'The potion is only done first as a deterrent, someone who is incapable of concocting the potion does not have the ability to become an animagus, it just saves time in the long run, what's the point of learning the rest if you cant do the most essential part'

'Fair enough' James shrugged.

'Guys do you not realise what this mean? We are one step closer to getting this' Sirius smiled triumphantly.

'HIGH FIVE' James shouted excitedly, four hands met in the air above their heads.

'There is only one problem' Remus said.

'What could possibly be wrong? It's finished' Peter asked.

'What are we going to tell Lily?' Remus asked.

'Well…urm' James shrugged, Sirius shook his head.

'Why do we have to tell her anything?' Peter asked confused.

'Because, you idiot, she helped Remus brew the thing, she is going to ask questions isn't she? She'll want to test it, see what it does' James said smacking Peter across the back of the head.

'OW, ok no need for violence'

James smirked, Sirius snickered.

'Why don't we just stick to the truth, tell Lily Slughorn forgot to tell you it needs to be frozen for a few months, in the mean time we can just keep our fingers crossed that she will forget' Sirius suggested.

'Yeah that might actually work'

'You sound surprised that I suggested something that might work, Remus' Sirius sounded mock offended.

'Shut up Sirius' Remus laughed 'Want to try the patronus charm again, its early no one will be up?'

'How about we go back to sleep and we just sneak out after hours tonight?' James said heading back to his bed.

'Yeah, I agree' Sirius said yawning.

Remus rolled his eyes 'you lazy gits' he muttered but also headed towards his bed. Peter was already snoring.

Remus caught up with Lily, later at breakfast to tell her Slughorn had caught up with him to say the potion needed freezing. She replied saying it was a shame they would have to wait so long to test it. Remus just hoped she would forget about it.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

'Argh, could Minnie have set us anymore homework?' Sirius moaned as he slumped down on the bench at the Gryffindor table for lunch on Friday.

'I don't think she could if she tried' James agreed.

'I can't believe you two are almost top of the class' Remus laughed. Since deciding they wanted to become Animagi, James, Sirius and Peter had all started paying close attention in their transfiguration classes. Although Peter still struggled he had worked his way up from the bottom of the class. But James and Sirius had gone from average to almost the top of the class, behind Remus of course. James thrived on the fact that he was better than Lily in at least one subject, much to Lily's dislike. Professor McGonagall couldn't understand why they were suddenly paying attention in her class, not only not causing trouble but actually taking an interest in the subject, especially as she was still receiving notes from their other teachers bringing the number of hours worth of detentions the pair had served that year up to seventy hours each.

'Almost, but we will be there sooner or later, my dear Remmy' James smirked. 'I just can't wait to see the look on Lily's face when I beat her in the end of year exam'

'You know you might actually want to revise for those exams they are next week' Remus said pulling a book out of his bag and setting it on the table.

'We'll be fine' Sirius said shovelling food into his mouth.

They continued to eat for a while when Sirius got up and said 'I'll see you lot in Defence, there is a lovely blonde Ravenclaw smiling at me from her table'. Peter rolled his eyes as Sirius stood up and strutted over to where she sat with her friends, who all giggled and blushed when he sat down.

The common room that weekend was full of stressed fifth and seventh years who were all studying hard for their exams that were taking place over the next two weeks. The first years quickly learnt not to make any noise in the common room or cause disruption when Bobby Smith 'accidently' got in the way of a seventh years wand and was transfigured into a vase which was put onto the window sill for half an hour before being transfigured back into a boy. Most of the other years tended to take their revision outside so not to encounter their wrath.

The marauders returned to the common room after filling up on every type of breakfast Hogwarts has to offer. The common room was fairly busy but three empty chairs remained nearer the back of the common room. James and Sirius both ran to get the same chair but the latter pushed the former into a group of sixth years. James apologised and turned to see Sirius jump onto the chair, smirking. James ran to get one of the other chairs, Peter behind him. Remus rolled his eyes and sat on the floor leaning his back against the wall. He opened a charms book he had taken down to breakfast with him.

'Will you put that book away, you have had your nose stuck in a book since last Tuesday' Sirius moaned.

'Some of us actually care about our exams, Siri' Remus replied not looking up from his book.

As if to prove Remus', point someone shhed from the other side of the common room. James ignored it.

'Yeah but you didn't have to read it through breakfast'

'Pete's right put the book down' James said.

'No' Remus said simply.

James grabbed the book and darted out of his chair. Remus stood up, annoyed, and made a grab for his book but missed.

'Give it back James' Remus said in a threatening tone.

'No' James said mimicking Remus. The former took a step back but tumbled to the floor. It appeared that his trainer laces had tied themselves together in a neat bow. From the corner of his eye Remus could have sworn he saw Evanna smile to herself and put her wand back in her pocket. Not knowing whether he just saw what he thought he did or not, Remus smiled anyway and returned to where he was sitting, searching for his page

James looked around the common at everyone revising, he knew he should be revising too but he just couldn't be bothered, they were only end of year exams – they didn't mean anything. Bored James looked over to Lily's table where she sat with the other three Gryffindor third year girls. Her hair was pulled back into a scruffy pony tail, he loved the way her hair always looked good whether plaited, down or up scruffily like today. He noticed her quill scratching rapidly across the parchment in front of her. _Trust Evans to be revising as hard as the fifth and seventh years _James thought.

James pulled out his wand from his back pocket and pointed it at Lily's quill, muttering some words. To Lily's astonishment the quill she was holding was no longer a quill; in its place she now held the stem of a flower. Atop the stem was a lily bud, which before her eyes flowered into a full grown Lily.

Watching from across the room James saw a flash of sadness fly across Lily's face, but before he could be sure he actually saw it anger took its place. James flicked his wand, smirking, transfiguring her parchment, and her friends' quills and parchments also into Lilies.

'POTTER'

Lily had turned around to see James grinning in her direction, wand raised. James just laughed back.

'TURN THEM BACK'

'Hey Evans, come to join us?'

'GIVE US OUR NOTES BACK'

'Aw come on don't you like them?' James replied ignoring that fact that she was fuming.

'POTTER IM SERIOUS'

'No actually that would be me' Sirius piped up.

'Shut it Black' Lily threatened but Sirius just laughed entertained. By now the whole of the common room were watching, revision forgotten for now, unable to concentrate due to the shouting.

'How about we come to a compromise? I'll transfigure them back to your quills and notes if you go out on a date with me' James smiled innocently.

'How about you turn them back and I won't hex you?' Lily suggested.

James decided it might be worth while not being on the receiving end of one of Lily's hexes again. 'Sure thing sweetie'

'Don't call me sweetie' Lily said, venom in her voice.

'Okay honey'

'Don't' and with that Lily went to return to her seat but before she got their Sirius called out her name.

'What?' she huffed.

'Just thought I'd let you know, we need to see the Puffapod plants again tomorrow, shall we say after dinner?' Sirius said in a pompous sort of voice.

'Perfect' Lily replied sarcastically returning to her seats. She must have muttered something about leaving to her friends because they all picked up their books and promptly exiting the common room.

'Isn't she cute when she's angry' James said.

'I suppose that's one way of putting it' Peter said 'not the word I'd use'

The marauders sat under their usual tree close to the lakes edge on Sunday afternoon. Remus had a book out in front of him again and was copying notes frantically on Goblin Rebellions of the 12th Century before their History of Magic test the next morning. Peter was reading his text book, and then closing it, his thumb holding the page, squinting his eyes trying to remember what he had just read to no avail. James and Sirius were both standing in the lake, water up to their knees, with their robes discarded and trousers rolled up. Each held five or six rocks in their pockets. The pair were skimming them across the surface of the lake, seeing whose could go further.

'Woohoo, I got six' James said giving Sirius a little playful shove.

'I can beat you easily' Sirius said taking a rock from his pocket and skimming it. 'See' he said as it bounced off of the waters surface for the seventh time.

James skimmed another rock which bounced twice before going 'plop' into the depths of the water.

'I am the victor' Sirius cried out loudly, throwing his arms into the air.

'Be the victor of this' James chuckled and pushed Sirius. Not expecting that, Sirius fell face first into the water.

'You git!' He spluttered, standing up. He grabbed James and put him in a headlock, low towards the waters surface. 'Say I am better than you. Say I am the Victor. Say I am the greatest prankster, marauder and man Hogwarts and the female population has ever seen'.

James struggled, laughing, under Sirius' grip 'I am better than you, I am the Victor, I am the greatest prankster, marauder and man Hogwarts and the female population has ever seen'

'You were supposed to say I am, as in me Sirius Black' he said dunking James' head under. James quickly reacted by hitting the back of Sirius' knees causing him to topple over, dragging James with him.

Both boys were now drenched head to toe and sitting upright in the lake. James again shoved Sirius, who splashed James back in return.

Remus watching from under the tree laughed. 'Oi Pete copy this' he pointed his wand at James and hoisted him into the air by his ankles. Peter quickly copied, Sirius joining James in the air.

'So who's the greatest marauder now?' Remus asked the boys.

'That would still be me' James and Sirius said in unison.

'Considering the position you are in, I'd say other wise, wouldn't you Pete?'

'Definitely' Peter's eyes flared with excitement, it was nice for him not to be the one on the end of a spell for once.

'So now we have you like this, what should we do?'

'I can think of something' a mischievous voice said from behind Remus and Peter.

'Evans stay out of this' James said a little scared, he had been on the receiving end of Lily's spells enough times to know this can't be good.

'Why hello, Lily, we are open for suggestions' Remus smiled evilly.

Lily whispered something in Remus' ear who laughed in return.

'Nice idea'

'May I?' Lily offered.

'Be my guest'

'Lily, don't be too mean' Nevaeh called. She was leaning against the tree behind them waiting for Lily.

'Don't worry Neev, what is it Potter always says when he pranks? _It just a bit of fun_' Lily pointed her wand at James then Sirius.

Suddenly James felt his legs glue together, then Sirius felt his arms glue to his sides.

'Evans what are you doing?' Sirius said worried.

'Well I do believe you'll have to swim back to shore, but that would be too easy'

'What do you mean swim to shore? The water is only a foot or two deep' James said struggling a little from being upside down for so long.

'Of course it is _here_. Remus would you?' Lily asked sweetly.

Remus flicked his wand so James was thrown further into the lake and landed with a huge splash, before resurfacing. He used his arms to tread water, about half way to the centre of the lake. Sirius seeing this laughed for a second before realising he was next.

'Peter?' Lily asked, again sweetly

'Of course' he smirked as Sirius was catapulted to join James.

In the meantime any body in the vicinity, who was desperate for an excuse to stoop revising even for a minute, was watching the little game.

James and Sirius spent the best part of the next half an hour trying to get back to shore, much to the amusement of the surrounding people. When they finally returned to shore James was flapping his arms around hopping to get out of the water whilst Sirius marched out of the water and straight over to where Remus and Peter were sitting with the girls.

'Okay har har, you've had your fun, now can you reverse it'

'Sure' Lily said flicking her wand.

James continued to hop around. Lily stood up and walked over to James.

'That was for embarrassing me this morning, don't even think about doing it again' Lily said venom in her voice as she stood in front of James. She flicked her wand again and released James who fell forwards taking Lily with him.

'Get off me, Potter' she said trying to push James off of her. James had fallen as such as his head had landed on Lily's chest. At this James blushed a little, jumped up and turned away to hide his embarrassment. Lily huffed, stood up, grabbed Nevaeh's arm and stormed off towards the castle.

'Aw is Jamie embarrassed?' Sirius said in the kind of way you would talk to a baby.

'Shut up' James muttered.

'But Jamie you got one of your wishes' Remus laughed 'to be on top of Evans'

Peter joined in the laughing and added 'Yeah mate I mean look where your head landed'

'Right that's it you're going to get it' James said as he ran for Peter, who was looking scared, and picked the small boy up. James carried Peter in a fireman's lift into the lake until it was two feet deep and threw Peter down into the water.

Sirius and Remus were rolling up, mainly due to the alarmed look on Peters face.

'Remus? What are you laughing at? I do believe you're the reason I'm wet in the first place' that wiped the smile off of the boys face.

'I do believe he is right' Sirius joined in.

'Now come on it was only a joke' Remus tried to reason with the boys, but to no avail.

The pair ran for Remus, who wasn't quick enough. Before even running a few metres Sirius had lunged for the boy's feet, tackling him to the ground.

'Quick Jamie, grab his arms'

James and Sirius carried Remus by his arms and legs over to the waters edge.

'One…' Sirius said as they swung him back and forth.

'Two…' James said as they swung him again.

'THREE!' they said together catapulting Remus into the water.

Sirius laughed but soon stopped as he realised he too was being thrown into the lake by James.

'Oi, what was that for?'

'For taking the piss'

Sirius stood up walked over to James and shook his head, the water from his hair flying everywhere, like a dog.

'Ergh Sirius, stop it' James moaned but Sirius just laughed and replied with 'come on you lot I'm hungry'

After packing up their stuff the group made their way back to the castle. As they entered the Entrance Hall McGonagall noticed them all wet and approached them.

'May I ask why you are creating indoor puddles?

'Er…' they all said together.

'Never mind, just don't do it again. Here' McGonagall pulled out her wand and blasted hot air from the end of it, drying the boys off.

'Thanks Minnie' Sirius called out as the boys headed for the Gryffindor table before feeding on whatever they could get their hands on.

**Thank you for reading please review it would mean a lot**

**Phoebe xxx**


	16. Harsh Truths

**Chapter 16! Cant believe I have actually written this much. For my first fanfic the responses have been great – please review to let me know what you thing about this chapter**

**Enjoy!**

~~~ Harsh Truths ~~~

'Okay so our plant should be ready to harvest on Sunday evening' Lily said putting down her quill and parchment full of notes 'have you finished the drawing yet?'

'Almost' Sirius replied. The pair were in Greenhouse 3 looking at their Puffapod plant – which had grown to about four feet tall and had almost a dozen blood red pods scattered around it shining in the light pouring through the glass windows - and updating their notes and sketches. To Lily's surprise Sirius was actually working hard on their project like he actually cared, she didn't really picture him as one for caring about school.

'There, done' Sirius smiled 'so only a few weeks of school left. Got anything planned for the summer, Evans? Or are you just going to study for two months solid?' Sirius mocked, leaning back against the table behind him.

Lily rolled her eyes. 'Ha ha very funny, you know I do have a life, I don't spend every minute of everyday studying' she retorted as she returned her things to her bag.

'Could have fooled me' he laughed as he packed up his own things into his bag.

Lily glared at him 'because of course your summer will be absolutely perfect'

Sirius' face changed, he no longer had that careless look on his face that he always seemed to wear. Lily also noticed that he had stiffened a little in his stance, no longer leaning against the desk. 'For your information just because my family is rich doesn't mean my home life is perfect, nothing about my family is perfect' it was a common known fact that the Black family were one of the wealthiest wizarding families, due to their pureblood status.

'So what you have family problems, welcome to the real world, most people do' Lily said bitterly. _Trust Black to think his own problems were greater than any one else's_. This annoyed Lily most of the time; both Black and Potter thought that their problems were the only ones worth worrying about. She didn't understand what made them so special, everybody else thought so but she just thought they were irritating.

'If your suggesting your family problem is anything like mine then you have absolutely no idea what your talking about' Sirius' face was becoming redder the angrier he got.

'What could possibly be wrong, my sister can't even stand to be in the same room as me. She rejects me because of who I am. The fact that I can move, change or create things just by a wave of a wooden stick' Lily waved her hand in front of her like she was waving her wand. 'She thinks I'm a freak just because I'm different, different from what she knows. My parents think she is just jealous because she cant do magic but it obviously runs deeper than that. I mean we used to be so close and now she hates me, and she hates who I am. I can't even be me at home; at least you're surrounded by wizards' she was bordering angry now. _How dare he think he is the only one with problems!_

'You think that makes any difference, the fact that my family are magical. Yeah my _mum_ can send hexes, my _father _curses, and I cant even recognise the person I know my brother could be if he stopped being their puppet. You have no clue what my family is like. Try being the only Gryffindor in a line of Slytherins. Try being good when your line is tainted with evil, go on! So what, you had a dispute with your sister, I bet your parents never did anything like this' Sirius pulled up the sleeve of his robe to reveal I faint pink line running from his wrist to his elbow on the inside of his arm.

Lily gasped at the sight of the scar and took a step back shocked at the fact that someone could do that to their child. The line looked recent, done with in the last year or so but surely this is just from a prank gone wrong, it can't actually be from his parents, could it? 'I'm sorry, I didn't know'

'Well it appears there is a lot you don't know, Evans. Like I said the other day, you've never tried to know me, so don't think that you know everything about me. You moan about your sister, who cares, you can just ignore her, leave the house, and do whatever you damn want to, to get away. I can't I am stuck with them, school is the only reprieve I have and even then they try to interfere. Threat, after threat, after curse, after hex. You really don't know anything. YOU HAVE NO IDEA' with that Sirius pulled the door of the greenhouse open stalked through and slammed it shut behind him, a pane of glass in the door shattering in his rage.

Lily wasn't sure how to respond to that. She didn't know, he was right, but how was she to have known that, it's not like they are friends. They didn't even tolerate each other, only when it came to school work. She still felt guilty though. The image of that scar wouldn't leave her mind.

James, Remus and Peter were lounging in the common room. Remus was beating Peter at chess while James was reading a quidditch magazine. The three weren't really paying much attention to those around them, most of which were studying. Peter had a look of utter concentration on his face trying to figure out his next move that wouldn't lead to the demise of his king. Remus just watched amused at his effort. James kicked off his shoes and put his feet up on the couch he was sitting on. He flipped over the page to read an article on a German quidditch player when he heard someone shout.

'WILL YOU JUST MOVE!' he heard Sirius shout rather angrily from the direction of the portrait hole. James looked up to see two first year girls scared out of their minds and looking like they were about to cry. After moving out of his way Sirius stormed through the common room and headed straight to the stairs leading to the boys' dorms. The common room was silent. Sirius in a bad mood wasn't good and most here had seen the results of the last time he appeared this angry.

'Uh-oh' James said to Remus and Peter, they looked concerned. James wasn't sure if he should leave Sirius be for a moment or whether he should go talk to him. In the end it was Remus who made up his mind for him.

'I think we better go see what's wrong, or at the very least try and calm him down enough to stop him from doing anything stupid' Remus said getting up, he motioned for his queen to move across the board before adding 'check mate'

Peter huffed at loosing yet another game of chess to Remus. James wasn't sure why he even bothered in the first place; he had never known anyone to beat Remus before.

The three reluctantly made their way up the stairs to their dorm. Peter stopped outside the door to their room. He turned around to face the other two 'are you sure we shouldn't leave him to calm down on his own for a bit?' he asked apprehensively. The last time Sirius had been this angry Peter had mistakenly made the situation worse, resulting in him spending the next day with a black eye. He had gone to Pomfrey about it but it still takes 24 hours for the bruising to fade even with the potion.

'Man up Pete' James said although he too was reluctant to enter.

They opened the door and took a little peak at the scene they were about to face. Sirius had punched a hole through his wardrobe door, kicked over his trunk and Remus' and smashed one of the water glasses on the floor. Remus looked around the room thinking this was more than his usual anger out burst; Sirius was more likely to swear than cause destruction.

'Siri? Are you okay?' James knew it was a stupid question but he didn't really know what else to say. He took another step into the room looking around for his friend. Sirius was sitting scrunched up in the corner in between his and James' bed. He was rocking ever so slightly back and forth, anger apparent on his face, tears in his eyes. _What on earth? _James thought. He'd seen his friend in a bad state but this was different.

Worried now he rushed to his friend's side and said frantically 'Siri, what's wrong? Tell me what is going on?'

'Why don't you ask Evans?' he spat out disgusted.

'Evans? What has she done?' Peter asked confused looking around at the other two who were equally confused.

'I know you like her James but sometimes that bitch can be heartless' James was shocked. He know of course that Lily didn't like him or Sirius to the point where she despised them, he knew she liked to send hexes their way but he had never known her to do anything like this-this situation in front of him.

'What did Lily do Sirius?' Remus asked calmly but cautiously. Sirius looked up at the use of the girl's first name.

'Why don't you ask her, seeing as the two of you are like this' Sirius said bitterly twisting his third finger around his second.

'Calm down Sirius, mate' Peter said before Remus could respond, patting his friend on the shoulder.

'Yeah, I know, its just she acts like she knows everything and she really doesn't' Sirius said a little calmer but the anger still flared in his eyes.

'Come on Siri, I'm sure she didn't mean it' Remus said defensively, he knew Lily and Sirius weren't exactly friends but he didn't think Lily would cause this.

'What were you talking about?' James intercepted before Sirius could retaliate to Remus' comment.

'I just asked her what she was doing for the summer, just making conversation you know, in case she let slip where she lived' he smiled at James who chuckled 'and then we got into the conversation of our…families' Sirius struggled to finish the sentence.

The other three gasped, Sirius never discussed his family outside their group.

'She said something about her sister hating her and I just flipped, she thought my life was perfect just because I'm a pureblood' he spat the last word out. Sirius would rather be a muggle born than follow the pureblood supremacy like his family. Frankly he couldn't understand why anybody thought purity of blood was the most important thing. People were turning on their own families, his own uncle and aunt had turned on their child for marrying a muggle born.

'Look mate why don't we go down to the quidditch pitch and fly around for a bit, yeah?' Sirius was very much like James when it came to flying. They both loved the purity of the air, the way it wasn't tainted with emotion, even when it rained. They loved the feel of the wind in their hair; the air provided them the escape from the real world they craved from time to time.

'Yeah, yeah Jaime that sounds good, let me get my broom out of my wardrobe' he muttered in reply before getting up, ignoring the mess he made, and retrieved his broom. Unlike James, Sirius was not on the quidditch team but James hoped that would change in the coming September because one of the team's beaters was leaving school in a few weeks.

The four made their way slowly down to the quidditch pitch, staying quiet. Although this was a rarity for the marauders – to see all four silent at one time, together – this was Sirius' family, which had always been a touchy subject.

Upon entering the entrance hall they saw Lily leave the Great Hall with her friends. The red-head looked like she was about to say something but Remus shook his head at her, warning her not to start anything. Lily shut her mouth again and turned back to her friends. However the situation was not avoided liked Remus had hoped.

'Oi Evans!' James called out crossing the hall towards her.

'Just leave it James' Remus said.

'Yeah, it'll be dark soon, lets go' Sirius said wanting to avoid this conversation being brought up again, especially in front of half the school.

'One second' James shhed his friends 'Hey Evans, what makes you think you have the right to say stuff like that?'

'Excuse me' Lily retorted.

'You know exactly what I'm talking about' James spat.

Lily looked over to where the rest of the marauders were standing. Sirius seemed embarrassed and upset, and also like he'd be willing to let the floor swallow him whole. Remus sighed and shook his head slightly to himself. Peter just frowned.

'Look Potter, get over it, it has nothing to do with you…'

'This has everything to do with me he is my brother' James interrupted furious.

Lily ignored him 'there was no way I could have known and by the look of Black's face he doesn't want the rest of the school knowing either, so just drop it'

'I think a lot of things about you Lily, as you know, but I never thought the words _spiteful cow_ would make the list' Everyone around them gasped – James had never, _ever_ said anything remotely harsh to Lily since he had known her. Sure most of the words he said to her embarrassed her, annoyed her even, but they were never purely offensive.

'Like I said Potter I couldn't have known, so drop it'

Remus could see Sirius trying to mask the distress on his face so he walked up to James and grabbed the back of his jumper. 'Come on James'

James allowed himself to be dragged away by Remus who then pushed him through the doors and out onto the ground.

'Thanks' Sirius muttered appreciatively but then turned away, he had shown enough emotion in the last hour or so to last him the rest of the year, but James still nodded in his direction.

'Come on Siri, I'll race you down to the quidditch pitch?' James shouted over his shoulder as he ran at full speed in front of his friends.

'Cheater' Sirius called back before sprinting to catch him up.

Remus laughed and followed the other two, Peter close behind him. When they reached the pitch James called out 'Woohoo, slow coaches, losers' he laughed.

'Shut up' Sirius said doubled over, breathing hard 'We don't all go for a jog at five in the morning, daily'

'Life's tough' James shrugged still grinning.

'We aren't all on the quidditch team' Sirius panted.

'Oh come on Siri, it wasn't that bad' Remus commented while James still jogged on the spot.

'We don't all have inhuman strength' Sirius collapsed to the floor. Remus shrugged and Sirius said 'bloody hell'

'Where's Pete?' James asked looking around before noticing Peter walking up to the pitch. James jogged over to join him 'come on Pete, keep going'

'Shut up, James' Peter said irritated but James just laughed.

'Come on, you two can grab brooms from the shed round back' James said to Remus and Peter 'you' he pointed at Sirius 'get up'

'No' Sirius replied.

'Get up' James repeated.

'No' the dark haired boy repeated.

'Well you know I was going to help you get on the house team next year, train you over the summer, but if you don't want me to then…' he trailed off.

Sirius jumped up and pushed James roughly on the shoulder 'tosser' he mumbled picking up his broom. James smirked at his friend.

The four flew around the pitch for a good three hours despite the fact that the sunset within about half an hour of them being their. Sirius quickly forgot about the events of the evening and was soon his carefree, laughing self again. Although Remus and Peter were not huge fans of flying the enjoyed watching their friends dart around the pitch chasing each other and throwing the quaffle between them.

Midnight found the boys laughing whilst eating bowls of apple crumble down in the kitchens of Hogwarts.

'Would sirs like anything else?' a petite house elf asked from beside James.

'A glass of milk would be great, thanks Dinky' Sirius replied.

'Right away, master Sirius' the elf ran off to fetch the boy's drink, returning moments later with a full glass.

'Thank you' Sirius said before taking a huge gulp. The other three laughed at him. 'What?' he asked in confusion.

'Why Remus I do believe our friend here has a moustache'

'I do believe your correct James' Remus chuckled.

'Har har' Sirius said wiping the milk from his upper lip with the back of his sleeve. 'Anyway who cares about that I want to know what Remus is going to do about that blonde Ravenclaw? I saw her staring at you at lunch, just like yesterday and the day before that, and the day before that, and the…'

'Okay Sirius I think we all get your point' Remus interrupted.

'Soooooo?' James asked dragging out the sound.

'So what?' Remus asked confused. His three friends looked at him expectantly.

'What are you going to do?' Peter asked.

'Nothing' Remus said simply, shrugging his shoulders. The disaster with Evanna the previous year was enough to put him off the whole idea of dating – his fury little problem would always get in the way so what was the point?

'Don't be stupid, Reemsie. You have to at least talk to her!' Sirius whined.

Remus laughed 'Reemsie? That's a new one'

'Don't change the subject' James said sternly. Every time one of them suggested their werewolf friend should date, or even show an interest in a girl as a matter of fact, he would close up and try to change the subject. 'And don't even try the whole wolf thing' he added knowing exactly what his friend was thinking.

'It's not easy you know, just because you only have to step into a room and all heads turn your way, I cant, I just cant it'll just get in the way' sadness flickered in his eyes for a second before disappearing.

'That's crap Remus, you don't have to marry the girl; you should go for it' Sirius pointed his spoon at Remus as he said 'you' only he didn't realise it still had a lump of crumble on it. The pudding flew through the air, almost in slow motion and landed square between Remus' eyes.

'Oooo' James and Peter said in a low voice. Sirius looked genuinely scared but at the same time was trying not to laugh, a smile spread across his face.

'You think that's funny do you Black? Huh?' Remus said in an even tone.

'Well I suppose you could look at it that way or you could look at it as an accident' Sirius defended himself but the fact that he couldn't control the grin in his face.

'You better run Black' Remus warned before darting towards his dark haired friend.

Sirius laughed as he easily jumped out the way. He got up and ran to the other end of the kitchen, Remus hot on his heels.

'Catch me if you can' Sirius said as he ran knocking plates of food onto the floor. James and Peter just stayed where they were laughing.

Remus stuck out his foot and then doubled over with laughter as Sirius tripped and fell head first into a trifle a nearby house elf was carrying. 'I think…we…are...even...now…' Remus said struggling for breathe due to laughing so much.

Sirius stood up, the only part of his face that was visible were his eyes. He lifted a finger, scraped it across his cheek and popped it in his mouth. 'Mmm, very nice, you house elves really are good at cooking' this had the other three laughing even harder. Sirius returned to his seat and continued to eat the contents on his face.

'We better go' Remus said looking at his watch after eventually recovering 'If you two sleep in another one of McGonagall's lessons I think that vain on her forehead that appears when she talks to any of us might actually burst'

James smiled. Minnie had the best, and by best they mean funniest, reactions to their pranks, flirting or just general behaviour far better than any other teacher at the school. Being their head of house meant that she was often the one to dish out the punishments for what ever it was they had done. Despite only being there for three years, the four of them Sirius and James especially, had formed a rather impressive record.

The four all stood up and left the kitchen only to turn around and see the last person any of them wanted to see at this hour.

'Well well, what do we have here? The _Marauders_ have been caught seeking around after hours, I'm going to enjoy this'

The boys froze for a minute before Sirius responded with 'Filch, my man, how are you doing on this fine evening?' he casually threw an arm over the caretaker's shoulder with a look of disgust at his filthy state. James coughed to hide his laugh.

'Don't even think about worming your way out of this one, Black' Filch grinned evilly, pleased with himself for catching students out of bed 'come on I think we should go and pay Professor McGonagall a visit, although I doubt she will be happy about being woken up at this time'

The boys huffed and followed behind their gross caretaker. James wished he had brought his cloak but seeing as they had come here straight from the Quidditch pitch he didn't think they would have used it – not that they can all fit under it anyway but still. They trudged along the corridors in silence while Filch muttered to himself still over-joyed.

'Hey Siri, isn't there a tapestry round the corner' James whispered under his breathe.

'James, there are tapestries all over this castle'

James rolled his eyes 'Yes I know that you idiot but doesn't this one lead back to the other side of the castle?'

A smile spread across the boys face 'Yeah I think so, isn't it the one depicting the four founders standing with the castle not long after it was built?'

'Yeah I think so; look there it is' James pointed as they rounded the corner. The pair slowed down a little, grabbing the jumpers of the two in front of them. 'Oi' he pointed again.

Remus nodded but Peter still looked confused. James held the tapestry back while Sirius went through the gap, followed by Remus. James rolled his eyes again and pulled Peter through the hole before gently returning the fabric to its rightful hanging state.

'Wait a second' James called the others back. He clapped loudly once, the sound echoing off of the stone walls. The other three shhed him but he simply held up a finger signalling them to wait. As James had hoped the noise had caused Filch to turn around to see a now empty corridor. Despite being behind the cloth James knew it had worked as he heard Filch swear rather loudly then get shhed by a nearby painting he had just woken up.

The four snickered before heading down the tunnel to appear outside the defence classrooms. The journey back to Gryffindor tower was not interrupted and the four third years retired to bed – Sirius once he had showed all the trifle off.

Before they went to sleep James added 'anyone fancy a trip into Hogsmead tomorrow, I think I know a way we can get back at Filch, and hit another bird with the same stone' he smiled to himself as snores slowly filled the room.

**Yay! Another chapter finished – please please please tell me what you think I'd love to know, or if any of you have any suggestions for future storylines or chapters after all nothing is set in stone :)**

**Phoebe xx**


	17. Potion Effects

**I'm so so so so so sorry I haven't posted in ages. I had a bit of writers block and a very hectic school term. **

**PLEASE REVIEW**

**Enjoy :)**

~~~ Potion Effects ~~~

Two days later saw the three of the Gryffindors sitting at their table in the Great Hall eating their breakfast. This was payback time. They had snuck into Hogsmead the previous day to get what they needed and were now waiting for the opportunity to cause the mess that would attract one of their targets. Filch had been livid that the Marauders had escaped punishment once again and was looking for any excuse to throw them into detention.

The boys sat there chatting lightly waiting for the opportunity to arise and for there to be enough people eating breakfast. The Slytherin table was filling up rapidly with hungry students.

'Ok so the end near the door is pretty full I think that will be our best bet to start this thing off' Peter pointed out to the others filling his plate up with scrambled eggs and sausages.

'On three?' Remus asked putting his fork down. The others nodded in reply drawing their wands. 'One, two three'

The three pointed and flicked their wands and thirty or so Slytherins found their goblets thrown from their hands or flying off the table, sending their contents in every direction – causing the mess they needed.

Shrieks filled the hall as girls complained about the mess of their hair they had spent so long that morning fixing and the lack of time to shower to fix the problem. Most of the guys just looked annoyed, some eyed the Gryffindor table, eyes occasionally hesitating on the three marauders, most of which noticed James' absence. They knew that the Marauders were practically joined at the hip and were rarely seen apart unless one had a detention which at that precise moment was impossible as no teacher gave detentions this early. So James' absence must be due to the commotion at the top end of the Slytherin table.

Bellatrix was among those who endured the pumpkin flavoured shower moments before. Unlike her housemates she glared straight towards the Marauders, in particular her dear cousin.

Sirius met her eyes a smirk forming on his face a smirk all the Marauders seemed to pull off identically almost like it was their signature trait. Sirius stared down his seething cousin until she turned away to push a second year out of her way as she tried to exit the Great Hall.

As well as causing a mess which would no doubt attract their filthy caretaker this also provided a necessary distraction for the next step of their plan. Most of the students – those not covered in pumpkin juice – were laughing or at least looking in the general direction of the commotion.

As expected, with in seconds Filch was standing at the door with a mop and bucket muttering to himself furiously. Watching the old man enter Sirius turned his head to the middle of the Slytherin table where James was standing unseen by anyone, concealed by the cloak and nodded.

Despite Sirius not being able to see him James smiled mischievously in return. He stepped forwards, careful not to touch anyone and leant round his fellow third year in front of him, reaching over to his drink, tilting his hand slightly over the top. James internally cringed at being so close to something so greasy but he knew it was worth it to see the look on the slimy gits face in a minute or twos time.

James quickly retreated as the boy flinched and looked around himself. The group in front of him quickly forgot about the other end of the table and returned to their conversation.

Mulciber, one of Snape's friends, reached forward for his goblet wanting a drink. James held his breath, the boy had picked up the wrong goblet; he had picked up Snape's instead. This couldn't happen, sure Snape would get angry if this happens to him but Mulciber would more likely go for revenge, Snape normally just glared at best. This was one of the traits that made Snape the perfect target for pranks. They loved how he had a lack of fight in him, he rarely ever retaliated but even better, and James would never admit how much he enjoyed this to his friends, he loved that Lily normally got involved by shouting at him. He loved seeing that flare of anger in her emerald eyes she saved only for him. He loved how her cheeks would flush ever so slightly that most people wouldn't even notice they did if they didn't watch her the way he did.

Before he could panic further though Snape said 'I think you'll find that's my goblet' and grabbed it from his friends hand 'I'd rather not be stuck with your pomegranate juice, if you don't mind' he added before taking a sip of his drink. Again James smiled to himself.

A minute later a sickly sweet smile appeared on Snape's face as he sighed contently playing with his fork.

'Lost your appetite their mate?' Mulciber asked his slimy friend but Snape just continued grinning to himself, giggling slightly. 'What's up with you? Why are you giggling like a girl?' he added disgustedly.

Snape sighed and glanced up the hall to the other end of the Slytherin table, practically drooling on his breakfast. _Any moment now _James thought.

Snape suddenly jumped out of his seat and started skipping down the hall. James had to stop himself from bursting out in laughter and giving away his presence. Snape continued to skip until he was a few feet away from Filch. He reluctantly took a step forward but jumped back in a shy five year old style, giggling the whole time. He attracted the attention of most of the students around him. Filch had yet to notice.

'What in the name of Slytherin is he doing?' Mulciber asked Crawley who was sitting beside him.

'Someone has probably slipped him something, good job you didn't drink from his goblet' Crawley smirked.

Meanwhile the rest of the Hall's attention was being drawn to Snape prancing around Filch like and idiot. He danced around for a minute or two more as the onlookers giggled and muttered amongst themselves.

Once Snape had finished he stood up straight, took a depth breath and walked up to Filch taking the old guys hand in his own and looking at him longingly. He then announced to Filch for the whole school to hear 'My darling, you are my love, my one and only true love. Tell me, for you must feel the same way, do you return my love?'

The Hall was stunned into silence for a second or two before it was filled with shrieks of laughter. As said before Snape's reactions were the best. Everyone was watching Snape's little act, unsure what to make of it, obvious that he wasn't doing it of his own accord.

'Get off of me you little twit' Filch growled, shaking Snape off of him.

However before the prank could go any further Professor McGonagall had joined the commotion. All four marauders internally cursed at how short lived their prank had been despite their effort. James realised at this moment he needed to make sure he was seen so as to give him an alibi; surely someone had noticed his lack of presence with his friends. Taking the long route back towards the front of the Hall James made his way to the entrance to the Great Hall. Once in the Entrance Hall he looked to see if the coast was clear and slipped the cloak off and shoved it into the pocket of his robes. He waited a moment before walking into the hall making sure someone noticed his entrance.

Meanwhile McGonagall was attending to the situation. 'Mr Snape, would you please stop crying'. The rejection from Filch had caused a rather strong sense of emotion within Severus who was now bawling his eyes out much to the amusement of the whole school. 'This has Marauder written all over it' the professor mumbled to herself. 'Mr Montgomery, would you mind taking Mr Snape down to the hospital wing before he does anything else stupid, and make sure he does come back here' she added addressing the sixth year Ravenclaw Prefect. He nodded in response and dragged Severus from the room.

James sat down with his friends just as McGonagall turned around to glare at them. She marched over to them; the crowd following behind her wanting to see what was going to happen.

'So what's your excuse this time?' McGonagall asked rather loudly making everyone in the vicinity jump.

The Marauders were silent.

'Well? Don't even try to deny it this has Marauder written all over it'

Uh-oh. James and Sirius were both finding it really hard not to laugh but they knew that would only make their situation worse.

'Black? Would you care to explain why Mr Snape is under the influence of a Love Potion?' the professor asked clearly still angry at having to deal with not only people from her own house but the marauders yet again. She wasn't sure how she was going to survive the next four years with these boys around; she felt like she was constantly putting them in detention.

Sirius tried, with difficulty to hide his smile as he hesitantly responded 'Er…well you see, Professor…' all four of them snickered as the image of Snape dancing for Filch reappeared in their minds.

'I've changed my mind. The looks on all of your faces show that you are clearly guilty. Potter, Lupin you will be in the Hospital Wing tonight at seven helping Madame Pomfrey check her inventory. Black, Pettigrew, you will meet Mr Filch in the Entrance Hall, also at seven, where he will give you all of the necessary equipment to clean the Trophy Room.'

'But Professor I have quidditch practice tonight at seven, the match is this weekend' James exclaimed.

'Very well then you and Mr Lupin can attend your detention at five o'clock instead'

The boys groaned as their Transfiguration teacher left to return to her breakfast. The crowd also dispersed.

Remus glared at James. 'Thanks mate'

'That was so worth detention in the Hospital Wing. I just wish Snape could have danced a bit longer' James chuckled.

'Lucky for you, we got the Trophy Room' Sirius whined gesturing to himself and Peter.

'And its Filch, one of our targets' Peter said dejectedly.

'Cheer up' Remus said amused 'we have double Transfiguration in twenty minutes'

The other three groaned as they returned to their breakfast. Twenty minutes later they picked up their bags and trudged down the hallways to McGonagall's classroom.

They stumbled out of the Transfiguration classroom, Sirius huffing out of boredom.

'What are you huffing and puffing about?' Remus asked.

'That lesson was boring' Sirius responded with another huff.

'You managed to transfigure your teapot into a tortoise with in ten minutes and you sat there talking for the rest of the lesson' Peter stated.

'Yeah I suppose' Sirius grinned. 'Merlin if you lot hadn't have finished with in half an hour…'

'You would have disturbed us and got us to ignore the work anyway' Remus interrupted smirking.

'Yeah probably' Sirius shrugged as they headed towards the dungeons. 'What do you reckon old Sluggie will have in store for us today?'

'You mean in store for you and James to blow up?'

'Same thing Remmy, same thing'

They entered the Potions class and sat down at their usual seats at the back of the classroom and after a ten minute introduction they started brewing a shrinking solution.

Slughorn was not impressed when Sirius spilt his potion all over his desk and the floor shrinking his desk, textbook, James' textbook and both of their and Jenna Steele's shoes. He quickly used the counter potion to return everything back to its normal state and promptly kicked the two boys out of the room.

'Woohoo' Sirius cheered as they climbed the stairs 'right I do believe we have half an hour to do what we please thanks to Sluggie'

'Thanks to you spilling your potion you mean, man you such a klutz' James laughed shoving Sirius playfully.

'Are you complaining?' Sirius raised an eyebrow.

'Hell no, but I only just got back into Slughorn's good books'

'James you never left his bad books after you set that desk on fire'

'Yeah you're probably right' James shrugged as they reached the Entrance Hall.

'So, the kitchens? I'm hungry'

'Its only half an hour till lunch'

'Yeah but I'm hungry _now_' Sirius complained.

'You're always hungry'

'True. Now let's go'

They made their way down to the kitchens. Sirius immediately helped himself to a box of cookies before sitting down at the kitchen's Gryffindor table.

Later that night in the Hospital Wing, James was juggling three rolled up bandages while Remus was counting blood replenishing potions. Naturally James had gotten bored of what they were supposed to be doing with in about five minutes.

'So Remus' James smiled 'I saw a Ravenclaw looking at you earlier'

'And?' Remus replied continuing his counting.

'Come on you know exactly what I'm talking about' James sighed. Remus always played dumb when talking about any potential relationships of any form 'I don't know why you do that'

'Do what?' Remus asked innocently.

James gave him a look.

'I don't see what the problem is. If I don't want to date that's my problem.' Remus huffed.

'Just don't let it take over your life'

'It's a huge part of my life, its not like I can forget about it!'

'I know' James hated the size of the impact Remus' lycanthropy had on his life.

They carried on in silence until it was time for James to leave for quidditch practice.

On returning to the Gryffindor Tower after practice, James walked straight into Lily who was returning from the library.

'Watch where you are going, Potter' Lily said harshly.

'Sorry, Evans. You know I might forgive you for what you said to Sirius the other day' he hesitated 'I might…if you go on a date with me'

'In your dreams, Potter' Lily retorted.

'Oh you have been in my dreams, quite often actually' he smiled his crooked grin that Lily hated.

Lily glared at him.

'You know what I might forgive you anyway, because you are so damn cute when you're angry'

'Go jump off the Astronomy Tower, Potter, and see if you're inflated head will save you'

'See I knew you didn't want me to die'

Lily let out a frustrated grunt and stormed off ahead. James chuckled.

The week quickly faded into the weekend and Gryffindor were faced with the chance to win the quidditch cup. Each player put their body and soul into the game proving them worthy of wining when their seeker did indeed catch the snitch leaving the score 380-140. The celebrations went on into the night. The exams finished and eventually so did the school year and before they knew it, the Marauders were back on the train, going home for the summer.

**Hope you liked it. PLEASE REVIEW**

**I probably won't be posting again until the summer, maybe July? because I have a load of exams – which sucks**

**Phoebe xxx**


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